


ties that bind

by zero_miles



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Curses, Dark Humor, Implied/Referenced Dubious Consent, Infidelity, M/M, Morally Ambiguous Characters, very casual mentions of murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:07:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 24,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27675797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zero_miles/pseuds/zero_miles
Summary: When Jaehyun marries Jungwoo, he does so without knowing that his new husband is a very old, very powerful witch or that he made more than one vow that summer night. It's not a big deal, until it is.Actions have consequences, but maybe Jaehyun would have thought twice if he’d known just how severe those consequences would be…after all, some promises aren't meant to be broken.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Kim Jungwoo, background Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Moon Taeil
Comments: 33
Kudos: 87
Collections: NCT Bigbang Round 1





	ties that bind

**Author's Note:**

> I think I tagged everything that needs to be tagged, but if I'm wrong please let me know! Also, make sure to check out the amazing art for this fic [HERE!](https://twitter.com/sheabutterbabby/status/1331747766591246336)

“How do I look?” Jaehyun asks, smoothing down the lapel of his suit in the mirror before turning to face his best friends when no one answers him. “Guys?” 

The three of them break apart from where they’d been whispering hurriedly amongst themselves and give Jaehyun matching guilty smiles. “You look great,” Mark says eventually, but Jaehyun can tell his heart's not in it.

Jaehyun sighs, dragging a chair over to rest in front of the bed the three of them are sitting on like little ducks in a row. “Out with it,” he demands once he’s sat down, crossing one leg over the other. A former girlfriend had told him once that that position made him look extra intimidating, and he hopes it works as well on his friends as it does his co-workers and clients alike.

“Out with what?” Taeyong asks, eyes wide and innocent. Jaehyun would believe him if he didn’t know by now that Taeyong only  _ tries _ to look innocent when he’s lying through his teeth, but since he does—well. Taeyong just confirmed that they’ve all been lying to him, actually.

Jaehyun taps his foot against the ground, and the sound echoes throughout the room. “You know what,” he says. He could leave it there, but he decides that he doesn’t want to give any of them a chance to squirm out of this. “You’ve all been acting a little weird ever since I got engaged, and then you all started acting  _ super  _ weird when we announced we’d be getting married today. Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?” he demands, shifting to turn his gaze directly on Mark. Mark’s the one most likely to break, after all.

Sure enough, Mark crumples like a wet newspaper almost instantly. “We’re worried about you,” he admits.

“Worried about me?” Jaehyun echoes, his eyebrows raising involuntarily. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Jae, you have to admit this looks a little strange from the outside looking in,” Johnny tells him, speaking to Jaehyun for the first time since they’d left Jaehyun’s soon to be former apartment nearly two hours ago. “You only met him back in October, and you’re already marrying him.”

Jaehyun shrugs. “I have to admit, when I proposed a few months back I thought we’d be getting married next summer instead of this summer, but he really wanted to get married as soon as possible and I know I want to spend the rest of my life with him. Or else I wouldn’t have proposed in the first place. So I don’t see the problem there. Next?” he adds, because he knows his friends aren’t done.

“I for one think it’s a little strange how he was able to book a place like this for a wedding on such short notice,” Taeyong chimes in. “Like, did he have this date booked and was just hoping that he’d have a fiancé by now?”

“And I can’t believe you’re giving up your apartment downtown to move into his house,” Mark rushes out. Apparently now that they’re saying what’s on their minds, they’re not going to let Jaehyun get a word in edgewise. “So many people would literally kill for your apartment, and yet you’re giving it up for an old ass farmhouse out in the marsh?”

“Also, no offense, but Jungwoo’s kinda weird. So are his friends,” Taeyong continues. “The one with the pink hair and all the teeth was looking at Mark like he wanted to eat him or something, I swear to god.”

Jaehyun narrows his eyes and turns to Johnny. “Anything else you’d like to add before I start?” he asks, voice low.

Johnny crosses his arms across his chest and arches an eyebrow. “I think they’ve about covered it for now.”

“Fine,” Jaehyun huffs, shifting to look at Mark and Taeyong more squarely. “First of all, two of Jungwoo’s friends own this house. It’s not a hotel or anything like that, and they’re letting us use it for the ceremony tonight as a favor to Jungwoo.”

“Bullshit,” Taeyong interjects. “There’s no way two people our age own this place.”

“I don’t know how they managed it either, but they do. This isn’t the first time I’ve been here,” Jaehyun says flatly. “Second, that ‘ _old ass farmhouse_ ’ has been in Jungwoo’s family ever since it was built a hundred and fifty years ago, and I’m going to save so much money not shelling out over two thousand bucks a month in rent each month. Also, the house is gorgeous, so it’s not like it’s a downgrade or anything like that.”

If Jaehyun’s being honest with himself, there are parts of Jungwoo’s house that are kind of odd. Such as the attic bedroom and the formal living room that look like they haven’t been updated since, well, the house was built, and the master bedroom that isn’t much better minus the bed itself. The kitchen also looks like it was renovated in 1950 and left alone since then, but all of the appliances are new and all of the bathrooms are spacious and modern. The greenhouse in the backyard is also so new the metal's still shiny, but that's likely because Jungwoo had it built recently.

Most importantly, though, Jungwoo’s clearly extremely attached to his house—but it’s literally the only tangible thing he has left to connect him to his family, so of course he is. Jaehyun would have to be an asshole of the highest order to rip him away from it. Even if they probably  _ could _ sell it for millions considering the size of the plot of land it's on and the condition of the house itself, but whatever. He’s certain that Jungwoo will be willing to give it up and they’ll move into the city itself at some point, but for now, Jaehyun’s fine with living the country life for a while.

“Also, Taeyong, you calling someone weird is pretty rich, don’t you think?” Jaehyun snipes. It’s a low blow, but Taeyong had been the one to strike first, insulting Jaehyun's future husband on Jaehyun's  _ wedding day _ , so Jaehyun thinks it’s justified. "Like...fine, yes. He's a little quirky."

"He wears dresses and skirts more often than he wears pants," Mark interjects. “That’s not just quirky. That’s strange as hell.”

"And I love that, so fuck off," Jaehyun snaps. "I thought you all liked Jungwoo! You were always telling me how good he was for me, and like I already said—I know I want to be with him for the rest of our lives. So us getting married now instead of next year or some other socially acceptable time isn't a big deal. And if you guys can't be happy for me, you can leave," Jaehyun finishes, and he means it. Best friends or no, he's getting married. He doesn't want anyone who isn't genuinely happy for him here today; with the small guest list, it’s going to be pretty damn noticeable if three of the attendees are unhappy. 

"I am happy for you," Johnny says softly. "This is just so fast, when you've always been so, so cautious. Especially with your heart. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he cast a spell on you or something."

Jaehyun outright laughs at that. "Good thing magic isn’t real, so you don't have to worry about that."

* * *

"Are you  _ sure  _ you didn't cast a love spell on him?" Doyoung asks. It would be funny if it wasn't the third time he's asked that today alone, but since it is, Jungwoo sighs exasperatedly.

"For the last time, no, I did not!" Jungwoo insists. "You know I hate those things. They're not real. I always said I’d never settle for anything less than true love, and a love spell isn’t that."

Jaemin smirks, just barely visible on the edge of Jungwoo's peripheral vision. "Maybe not, but  Goddess, they're fun while they last."

"For a whore like you, sure. But you know I stopped looking for  _ fun  _ fifty years ago, and it paid off. I found my fucking soulmate," Jungwoo says smugly, reaching up to fiddle with the fragile wreath Donghyuck had woven into his hair earlier that day. He hadn’t used any magic, so Jungwoo knows that if he fucks it up it’s highly unlikely it’ll be fixed before the sun goes down and the ceremony begins, but he can’t help himself. It’s just so  _ pretty _ . “He’s actually crazy in love with me of his own free will, instead of being crazy in love with me solely because I cast a spell that forced him to be.”

“How can he be your soulmate if he doesn’t even believe in the supernatural?” Jeno asks. Gently, because he knows this is a sore subject within the coven right now and because he’s Jeno—maybe the only one of them who’s actually a good person at their core, in Jungwoo’s opinion, and he’s including himself in that count—but it still stings.

“He’ll come around,” Jungwoo insists. “I’ll just have to ease him into it. We’ve got all the time in the world.” Quite literally, if everything goes right tonight.

Jeno sighs worriedly. “I still think you should have told him before now, or you should go find him and tell him before the ceremony starts. Like, okay! Maybe you didn’t cast a love spell on him like Jaemin does to every pretty stranger he meets! But he’s still entering into a  bond tonight without his consent, and that’s just as bad.”

“It’s not like it’s a bad spell though, as long as they both keep the promises they make tonight,” Yuta says, causing Jungwoo to jump a little; he hadn’t even realized Yuta had come back into the room yet. He’d left ten minutes ago to help Taeil and Donghyuck herd the few non-coven members attending the ceremony into the backyard, but they must not have needed his help if he’s already returned. “And if Jungwoo is lying to us about not casting a love spell on Jaehyun, we’ll all find out in an hour anyway because not even Irene can cast a marriage ritual that will take if both parties aren’t entering into the marriage under their own free will. Right, Jaemin?” he asks shrewdly.

Jungwoo cringes, and he can see in the mirror that he’s not the only one. He’d almost forgotten about the time that Jaemin had decided to marry a girl he’d put under a love spell, only to have the cords they’d used for the handfasting rituatl quite literally explode in their faces when Irene had tied the final knot. 

Turns out, the marriage bond is the only one that requires both parties to be entering into it with pure intentions for the magic to take. They hadn’t known that ninety years ago, having been an extremely young coven then, but it’s a lesson they’d learned the hard way. At least their coven leaders hadn’t forgotten about it; if Yuta’s bringing it up now, he’s definitely discussed it with Taeil sometime recently.

“Exactly,” Yuta says smugly. “So let him be.”

Jungwoo sends Yuta a grateful look. “He’s definitely marrying me out of his own free will, you’ll see. And even mundanes refer to their marriage vows as bonds of matrimony or whatever. This just gives the promises we’re making each other tonight a bit more power, and as long as our vows are honored the spell will remain dormant anyway.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Jeno says, still sounding worried. “This is why I’m never going to take up with a mundane, though. There’s just too much that could go wrong.”

Jungwoo decides not to mention the other reason why Jeno will never take up with a mundane. It's Jungwoo's wedding day, after all; today isn't the day to poke at open wounds. Instead, Jungwoo scoffs. “I mean, you’re right, but that won’t happen to me and Jaehyun. We love each other too much,” he says confidently.

* * *

Admittedly, Jaehyun hasn’t spent his life dreaming about what his wedding would be like one day; that was something he left up to most girls he knew. Or Johnny. He’d just always figured it would happen in a church, complete with all the bells and whistles that come with it, mostly because that’s how it’s always been done in his family.

Instead, he’s getting married in a backyard (a very, very  _ nice _ backyard, to be fair, but still a backyard) at sunset, barefoot, to a man wearing a dress where the main point of the ceremony won’t be religious vows but rather a handfasting ceremony. It’s nothing like he’d ever pictured, but it had been what Jungwoo had asked for, and Jaehyun hasn’t yet found something he’s able to say no to Jungwoo about.

God, but Jaehyun loves that man. The fact that Jungwoo’s rich enough to support them both lavishly for three lifetimes over due to a mysterious inheritance he doesn’t like to talk much about just makes it even better, Jaehyun thinks. Not having to worry about whether or not Jungwoo was a gold digger had made falling in love with him even easier.

If his grandmother were still alive, she’d probably refuse to come to this ‘ _pagan ceremony_ ’; Jaehyun’s mother said as much. As it is, she’s probably turning in her grave at the thought of her only grandson forsaking the church or whatever, but he can’t bring himself to care. Not when he sees the way that Jungwoo’s face lights up when his friend Taeil leads him to the end of the aisle and he sees Jaehyun standing at the altar waiting for him; Jaehyun would kill a thousand men if it meant he got to see that look on Jungwoo’s face every day, probably.

When Jungwoo walks down the aisle, it’s with the sun setting behind him, the rays reflecting off of the metal of the floral wreath woven into his hair and the dress he’s wearing flowing behind him in a way that reminds Jaehyun of the sheets his grandmother used to hang on a clothesline when she was still alive. Jaehyun had been half expecting Jungwoo to go all out with his wedding dress, but instead he’d chosen something flowy that fits him like a glove; it’s reminiscent of the dresses he usually wears, albeit fancier and more intricate than anything Jaehyun’s seen him wear in public before. Most importantly, he looks comfortable, which is the only thing Jaehyun had told Jungwoo he wanted when he had hesitantly asked him two months ago if he had any opinions about what Jungwoo should wear during their ceremony.

“You look beautiful,” Jaehyun tells him honestly when Jungwoo comes to a stop next to him, reaching out to take both of Jungwoo’s hands in his. Jungwoo’s hands are shaking, but Jaehyun knows his own are steady, and he hopes that Jungwoo being able to  _ feel _ how sure Jaehyun is about this will help alleviate his nerves.

“And you look like a three course meal,” Jungwoo winks at him, a blush spreading across his cheeks from the compliment. Jaehyun grins; mission accomplished, he thinks as the woman conducting the ceremony whose name he cannot remember for the life of him clears her throat to get their attention. She barely comes up to either his or Jungwoo’s shoulders, but when she begins to speak her voice is loud and clear and echoes through the enclosed yard.

“Jungwoo, Jaehyun,” she begins. “Today, you and the ones you hold closest to you have gathered here to celebrate the union of two lives becoming one. First, the two of you will exchange your handwritten vows. Then, I will bind your hands together with this cord,” she continues, holding up the three color woven cord Jaehyun had helped Jungwoo make last week. Jaehyun hadn’t really known what he was doing when Jungwoo had sat him down in front of a loom that looked like it was older than Jungwoo’s house was, but he’d known how important it was to Jungwoo that they both had a part in making the cord so he’d been willing to at least  _ try _ . Luckily for them, either Jungwoo was the best weaving teacher ever or Jaehyun was just a natural at loom weaving, because it had taken him all of ten minutes to grasp what he was supposed to be doing.

“Before our lovely couple begins to speak their vows, however, I would like to give anyone who may have a reason why this couple should not enter into the bonds of matrimony this evening a chance to speak,” she adds, and Jaehyun holds his breath. He doesn’t  _ think _ any of his friends would go as far as to try to put a halt to his wedding, but then again, he hadn’t known that his friends had issues with this wedding in the first place an hour ago.

The oddly tense moment is broken when Jungwoo’s friend Donghyuck springs to his feet. “Yo, Irene,” he shouts, mischievous grin spreading across his face, “what if I have a reason why they  _ should _ be married?”

“Then you can make a speech during the reception,” Irene tells him, raising her voice a little to be heard over the laughter that breaks out at Donghyuck’s words. “I’m going to assume there are no objections, then,” she says once the laughter dies down. “Jaehyun, Jungwoo, you may say your vows to one another whenever you’re ready.”

“Want me to go first?” Jaehyun murmurs. 

Jungwoo nods, looking grateful. “Please?” he asks.

Regrettably, Jaehyun has to let go of Jungwoo’s hands to pull the piece of paper he’d written his vows on out of his pocket. Jungwoo’s hands immediately move to twist in the skirt of his dress, and Jaehyun can’t help but smile at just how Jungwoo-like that gesture is.

“Jungwoo,” Jaehyun begins, trying to ignore how his voice shakes, “I never believed in love at first sight until I met you. I thought...God, I thought that it was something made up by Hollywood or something, trying to sell an unachievable dream to all of the hopeless romantics out there. But then I saw you sitting at that bar, looking bored out of your mind, and I swear it was like a bolt of lightning hit me out of the blue. I think I knew that we’d end up here the first time you smiled at me. Well, maybe not  _ here _ , exactly,” he adlibs, drawing a few laughs from the crowd, “but that I’d end up marrying you.”

Jungwoo reaches up to dab at his eyes with the edge of his sleeve, and it gives Jaehyun a little more confidence; he’d been so worried that Jungwoo would hate his vows, but he’s ninety-eight percent sure those are tears of happiness and not sorrow.

Taking a deep breath, Jaehyun continues. “My dad told me that any good wedding vows have promises in them, so I’m going to make some to you right now. I promise to support you through the ups and downs, the good and bad, the highs and lows. Instead of promising to always have your back, I promise to stay by your side. I also promise to never complain whenever you ask me to help you water all of your plants—”

“Even if I expand the greenhouse like I’ve been talking about?” Jungwoo asks.

“Even then,” Jaehyun promises. “And most importantly, I promise that I will love you, both the person you are now and the person you’ll be in the future, for the rest of our days, and that I will always stay faithful to you and to our love.”

Jungwoo sniffles audibly. “I shouldn’t have let you go first! How am I going to top that?” he complains.

“I’m sure you will,” Jaehyun tells him earnestly. Admittedly, Jaehyun’s a little biased—Jungwoo could say nothing at all and Jaehyun would adore it—but he does genuinely believe that whatever Jungwoo’s about to say will be beautiful.

Just like Jungwoo himself is.

“I didn’t write mine down,” Jungwoo says, still twisting his hands in his skirt, “so forgive me if I mess up, okay? I memorized them, but you never know...”

“You won’t mess up,” Jaehyun says confidently, reaching out to grab both of Jungwoo’s hands with his. He has a feeling that Jungwoo could use an anchor right now, and being that anchor is Jaehyun’s  _ job _ from now on. Might as well start a little bit early.

“I love you,” Jungwoo says simply. “I feel like I’ve waited lifetimes to find you, or more accurately, for you to find me, and I am grateful that the fates brought us together when they did. There was never anyone I could picture spending eternity with before I met you. So I, Jungwoo, take you, Jaehyun, as my husband, to be the companion of my house and the partner for all of my life. We shall bear together whatever trouble and sorrow life may lay upon us, and we shall share together whatever good and joyful things life may bring us. With these words and all the words of my heart, I marry you and bind my life to yours.”

“Oh shit,” Jaehyun exclaims, turning to look at Irene. “I didn’t say that I take him to be my husband too, can I get a do-over?” Jungwoo squeezes his hands tightly, and when Jaehyun looks back at him it’s to see Jungwoo giving him an exaggerated eye roll.

“You don’t need to do that,” Jungwoo admonishes him. “I know you do. It was obvious in every word you said, babe.”

Irene studies them both for a minute, then she nods. “Yes, I think the fates are in agreement that no more words need to be exchanged between the two of you,” she says cryptically. It’s a strange thing to say, Jaehyun thinks, but Irene interrupts before he can really dwell on it. 

“With that in mind, I think it is time we move on to the second part of this ceremony, the handfasting,” Irene announces, holding their cord up for the audience to see once again.

“First, let me explain the significance of this cord. All handfasting cords are special, but this one especially so, since it was crafted by the couple itself using colors and materials that signify their hopes for this union. The cord is made of cotton, which represents how they will find both strength and comfort in one another. The three colors used to create the cord also represents strength, as a three-fold cord is not easily broken. The colors themselves are also significant. White, so that they will have a new beginning. Blue, so that they will remain true to one another and their bond unbroken. And purple, so that this union will be one that is loyal and full of respect.

“Jungwoo, Jaehyun, please clasp your wrists together like we practiced yesterday,” Irene instructs them. 

Jaehyun lets go of Jungwoo’s hands and takes a deep breath. This is it; they’re about to tie the knot. Literally. Jungwoo’s smile when he wraps his right hand around Jaehyun’s left wrist is radiant, and Jaehyun can’t help but smile back at him. 

Irene smiles up at them both, draping the center of the cord over their arms where their wrists meet. “As this knot is tied, so are your lives now bound,” she begins, voice suddenly sounding deeper and more formal than it had before. It sends a shiver down Jaehyun’s spine, but it feels anticipatory rather than anything sinister. “Woven into this cord, imbued into its very fibers, are all the hopes of your friends and family, and of yourselves, for your new life together.

“With the fashioning of this knot do I tie all the desires, dreams, love, and happiness wished here in this place to your lives for as long as love shall last,” Irene continues, skillfully wrapping the cord around both of their arms in a way that feels secure without being overwhelmingly tight. Jaehyun won’t have to worry about losing circulation in his arms or hands, which had been one of those random worries he hadn’t quite been able to let go of in the days leading up to the wedding. 

“In the joining of hands and the fashion of a knot, so are your lives now bound, one to another. By this cord you are thus bound to your vow. May this knot remain tied for as long as love shall last. May this cord draw your hands together in love, never to be used in anger. May the vows you have spoken never grow bitter in your mouths.”

Jaehyun closes his eyes, letting the words wash over him. The more she speaks, the more it feels like something deep inside of his soul is shifting, changing, creating space for Jungwoo in the very fiber of his being. Maybe it’s because this is  _ his _ wedding, but Jaehyun’s never felt so affected by any vows he’s heard at any wedding before now, and he understands why Jungwoo had pushed so hard for a ceremony like this one. 

“As any child discovers when they are learning to tie their own shoes, the first move is to cross the ends. As your hands are bound by this cord, so is your partnership held by the symbol of this knot. May it be granted that what is done before the Fates be not undone by man. Two entwined in love, bound by commitment and fear, sadness and joy, by hardship and victory, anger and reconciliation, all of which brings strength to this union. Hold tight to one another through both good times and bad, and watch as your strength grows,” Irene finishes. 

Jaehyun opens his eyes just in time to watch as she ties the knot tight just below their arms, but not so tight that they won’t be able to extricate themselves later. It’ll take some effort, but that’s fine by Jaehyun; he’s kind of glad he’ll have an excuse to literally not let Jungwoo get any further than an arm’s length away during the reception later.

The gleam in Jungwoo’s eyes makes Jaehyun think that he feels the same way.

Jungwoo exhales heavily when Irene drops the cord, letting the knot hang loosely below their bound arms. It's a relieved sounding noise, and Jaehyun feels it within his soul.

“By the power invested in me by both the Gods and by the state of Georgia, I pronounce you two husband and husband. You may now kiss your groom,” Irene tells them. Jaehyun wraps his free arm around Jungwoo’s (tiny, tiny) waist and dips him low, planting a searing kiss on his new husband’s lips. Unfortunately for both of them, however, Jungwoo tries to plant his bound hand against Jaehyun’s chest to balance himself but instead causes them  _ both _ to lose their balance, tumbling to the ground in a heap with the skirt of Jungwoo’s dress spread out around them like a curtain.

“Oh, whoops,” Jungwoo giggles, so close to Jaehyun that their lips brush when he speaks. “Sorry, babe.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jaehyun tells him, using his free hand to brush Jungwoo’s hair away from his face. “You alright? I kind of crushed you, I think.”

“Not for the first time,” Jungwoo teases, wiggling suggestively under him. "You know I like it," he adds, eyes darkening. 

Jaehyun sucks in a breath. "I like it too, but we're in public. In front of my parents," he murmurs, and thankfully that small reminder is enough for Jungwoo to stop teasing, stilling beneath him and blinking rapidly as if to clear the haze of lust that had begun to settle over them. 

Someone clears their throat next to them for the second time that day, but when Jaehyun looks up it's Johnny standing there this time. "Um...since you guys are literally tied together I thought you could probably use a hand getting back up," he says awkwardly. 

Jungwoo moves so that he can poke his head around Jaehyun’s shoulder. "I think you're right," he says, beaming. Johnny looks slightly taken aback to have the full force of Jungwoo's smile directed solely at him, and Jaehyun gets it. It's exactly how he'd felt the night he and Jungwoo had met, when he'd sat down next to Jungwoo at some bar and asked to buy him a drink, trying desperately to focus on Jungwoo's face instead of the tanned thighs visible beneath the skirt he was wearing, and gotten that exact same smile before any words were spoken. 

Johnny hauls them both to their feet almost effortlessly, and Jaehyun thinks he hears someone sigh appreciatively. It wasn’t Jungwoo though, so he doesn’t really care. The sun has almost completely set by now, but the little bit of light left is more than enough to see that Jungwoo’s attention is solely focused on Jaehyun and no one else.

“You good, husband?” Jaehyun asks him.

“I’m good, husband,” Jungwoo replies, sounding delighted. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Jaehyun replies. It was obvious from the vows, both of them, but you know what? Jungwoo’s his  _ husband  _ now. If Jaehyun can’t tell his husband that he loves him over and over again, what’s the point of even being married?

* * *

“Careful, careful,” Jungwoo breathes out. “We don’t want to untie the knot.”

Jaehyun gives him a sheepish smile. “Sorry, babe. I just can’t wait to get both of my hands on you already,” he admits, and Jungwoo doesn’t bother to hide how he shudders at the words. 

“Soon,” Jungwoo promises. “I need to take off my dress first too, remember?” 

“I forgot,” Jaehyun says, but the smirk on his face makes Jungwoo think he really hadn’t. “Are you really sure I can’t help you take it off?” he adds, confirming Jungwoo’s suspicions.

“I’m sure,” Jungwoo tells him. He’d had the dress custom made almost fifty years ago and he’s not sure if any modern tailors could fix the damage if he let Jaehyun rip it off of him— not that Jaehyun knows that, of course. “It’s a family heirloom. Besides,” he purrs, letting his voice drop an octave or two into the seductive tone he knows drives Jaehyun crazy, “I might have a surprise if you behave yourself.”

Jaehyun swallows audibly. “Alright,” he acquieses. “How do we take this off without untying it though?” he asks, impatience bleeding into his voice, and Jungwoo smiles.

It had been surprisingly easy to convince Jaehyun that they should spend their wedding night at the coven house instead of making the trek back out to Jungwoo’s own house— well,  _ their _ house now— or renting a hotel room in the city for the night. Jungwoo had been prepared to die on this hill if needed, as the magic needed to seal their bond tonight will be much stronger within the four walls of the coven house, but he hadn’t needed to. Thankfully.

Right now, though, Jungwoo’s grateful that they’re spending the night here for an entirely different reason: namely, that he doesn’t have to wait for another hour or two for Jaehyun to fuck him. He bets that Jaehyun’s feeling the exact same way.

“Like this,” Jungwoo says, leaning over their tied arms so that he can help Jaehyun slip the cord off of his arm. Irene had done a really good job of tying it securely enough that it had stayed on throughout dinner and bidding their few guests a good night, but not so tightly that Jungwoo’s unable to extricate both Jaehyun and himself without untying it. “Ta da!” he sings a moment later, slipping his own arm out of it and holding the cord up in the air briefly, before setting it down gently on the dresser next to them. When they get home from their honeymoon in ten days, it’ll occupy a prominent place on the mantle over the fireplace in their living room, but for now it’ll stay here at the coven house for safekeeping instead of being crushed in one of their suitcases and flown around the world. The magic woven into the cord is strong, but Jungwoo doesn’t want to do anything that might damage it.

Jaehyun moves closer to him and wraps both of his hands around Jungwoo’s hips. “God, you’re gorgeous,” he says, sliding one of his hands up Jungwoo’s ribcage. The material of the dress is thin enough that Jungwoo can feel the heat of his fingertips against his skin, and he makes a soft noise before he can stop himself. Jungwoo has a plan for how he wants tonight to go— needs tonight to go, really— but with Jaehyun’s hands on him like this, he can barely think straight.

“So are you,” Jungwoo says breathlessly. He’s rewarded by Jaehyun chuckling darkly and tilting his head so he can kiss Jungwoo’s neck, which he  _ knows _ is one of Jungwoo’s two weak spots. “Oh, God— babe, I need to change,” he says weakly. If Jaehyun were to push right now, Jungwoo would probably let him rip the dress off of him with his bare hands like he knows Jaehyun really wants to, even if he’d mourn the loss of the dress immediately afterwards.

Thankfully, Jaehyun takes a step back. “You should do that now, then. And I’ll be out here waiting for you,” he adds, eyes dark and full of promise. 

The bag Jungwoo had asked Donghyuck to bring to the guest suite earlier is stashed in one of the cupboards along the bathroom wall, just like he’d said it would be. Jungwoo breathes a sigh of relief; it’s not that he doesn’t trust Donghyuck, of course not (if you can’t trust your coven leader’s husband, who  _ can _ you trust?), but Jungwoo’s been waiting for something to go wrong all night. 

“Stop being so paranoid,” he whispers to himself, gazing at his own reflection in the mirror. “Everything went fine. Is fine. Will be fine,” he sighs, shaking his head. Apparently Jeno’s little speech earlier had gotten to his head more than he’d realized. 

When Jungwoo exits the bathroom ten minutes later, it’s to find Jaehyun already stripped out of his own clothes, lounging on the bed and stroking his already hard cock languidly. Jungwoo can’t help but pout a little; he likes being the one to undress Jaehyun, but he supposes it’s only fair. Jaehyun hadn’t been allowed to help him out of his wedding clothes, either. 

Jaehyun sits up straight when he catches sight of Jungwoo, much to Jungwoo’s delight. “Babe,” he says, voice cracking. “Holy shit.”

“You like?” Jungwoo teases, going as far as to do a little spin. The lace garters and stockings had been a total bitch to get on, but it’s more than worth it since Jaehyun’s looking at him like he’s going to devour Jungwoo whole.

“I have a pulse and eyes, don’t I?” Jaehyun retorts, reaching out for Jungwoo when he approaches the bed. “I had a plan, you know,” he sighs.

“Oh?” Jungwoo asks, letting Jaehyun tumble him down onto the bed. He lands on top of Jaehyun, which he knows was intentional, and shifts so that his thighs are on either side of Jaehyun’s hips.

Jaehyun bites his lip as he nods, one of his hands sliding down to palm Jungwoo’s ass through the lacy underwear he’s wearing. It jostles the plug Jungwoo had inserted just before he'd left the bathroom as a surprise for Jaehyun, and Jungwoo has to bite back a moan to avoid ruining said surprise before Jaehyun finds it himself.

“I was going to eat you out until you cried and begged for me to fuck you,” Jaehyun says casually. “See how many times I could make you come before you finally came on my cock. But I don’t think I’ll have the patience for that anymore, not with you looking like  _ that _ .”

Jungwoo grins. “Aren’t you going to unwrap your gift?” he taunts. “The gift is me, by the way. Just in case you didn’t get that,” he adds, suddenly hesitant.

“Oh, I figured that out the second you came back into the room,” Jaehyun assures him, flipping them over easily so that Jungwoo’s the one splayed out on his back. He snaps one of the garters Jungwoo's wearing, just to hear him gasp, Jungwoo's sure.

"Well, then hurry up. I'm not feeling very patient either," Jungwoo goads him.

Jaehyun ends up tearing Jungwoo's lingerie in his haste to undress him, but Jungwoo's not bothered by it like he usually is. He'd bought this set figuring he'd only wear it once, and besides, the torn lace is the last thing on his mind when Jaehyun sees the plug and sucks in a sharp breath.

"Tease," Jaehyun says darkly, grabbing the base of the plug and twisting it. "Maybe I wanted to stretch you out, too."

"I told you— _ah_ ," Jungwoo moans when Jaehyun slides the plug out almost all the way only to push it back in, "I told you that I'm not feeling very patient either," he manages.

At this point, Jaehyun's pupils are blown so wide that his eyes look black as night. Jungwoo imagines he's not in much better shape. "Okay," he agrees. "Like this, or do you want to turn over onto your knees?"

"Like this," Jungwoo says immediately. 

"Your wish is my command," Jaehyun replies, pulling the plug out completely and tossing it to the side. He slides two of his fingers inside Jungwoo's hole immediately afterwards, not giving Jungwoo a chance to whine about feeling empty from the loss of his plug. 

Jaehyun insists on adding a third finger before he decides that Jungwoo's ready for his cock, even though Jungwoo swears that he's ready. He does make quick work of it at least, and Jungwoo stretches, satisfied, when Jaehyun withdraws his fingers to reach for the lube on the bedside table.

"You're sure you're good?" Jaehyun asks one more time, after he's set the lube aside and lined himself up against Jungwoo's entrance. It's sweet that he's so concerned, but Jungwoo's patience is about worn thin.

"I'm sure. Fuck me already, _husband_ ," Jungwoo demands.

Jungwoo's not sure if it's the demand in general or the ' _husband_ '' that does it, but Jaehyun nods once, swallowing heavily, before pushing his cock into Jungwoo without any further teasing.

When Jaehyun bottoms out, Jungwoo feels a surge of energy rise up around them, followed by a sensation that feels like how Jungwoo imagines a lock clicking into place inside his soul would feel. He can tell that Jaehyun feels it too, even if he doesn't know what's happening, because Jaehyun freezes with a shell-shocked look on his face for a long moment.

"I'm good," Jungwoo promises, pulling Jaehyun's attention back on to him. "Fuck me," he demands again, and Jaehyun obliges. Just like Jungwoo knew he would.

* * *

“God, you’re so hot,” Jaehyun says, breathing heavy against the damp skin of Jungwoo’s neck as he tries to catch his breath. He’s basically crushing Jungwoo at this point, having collapsed on top of him after he’d came, but Jungwoo doesn’t mind. Jungwoo doesn’t mind at all.

Jungwoo preens, stretching out underneath Jaehyun as best as he can. “You’re not so bad yourself,” he says, turning his head so Jaehyun will kiss his mouth instead of his neck. Jaehyun obliges, even if the kiss is more them breathing against each other’s mouths instead of anything more passionate. Jungwoo’s eyes stay closed even when Jaehyun pulls back; he’s considering going back to sleep, now that he’s been well-fucked to start the day, but then Jaehyun shatters the mood completely.

“I’m going to miss being able to do this whenever we want,” Jaehyun says, almost wistful.

“What do you mean?” Jungwoo asks, eyes flying open.

Jaehyun smiles down at him. “When we have a baby, of course. Don’t tell me I fucked you so good you’ve forgotten,” he teases.

Jungwoo stiffens, hoping Jaehyun can’t tell that he’s gone tense underneath him. It would be impossible for him to forget how badly Jaehyun wants them to adopt. It kind of feels like someone flipped a switch in his brain when their second anniversary passed last month (and if Jungwoo had to guess, that’s exactly what happened, courtesy of Jaehyun’s mother). The thing is, he should be thrilled that the love of his life so blatantly wants to build a family together. But there are two things that are keeping Jungwoo from jumping fully on board the baby train, so to speak:

First, Jaehyun brings it up most frequently when they’re in bed together. Like right now. A little voice inside of the back of his head wonders sometimes if Jaehyun forgets that, you know, he can’t actually knock Jungwoo up, that despite his preferred style of dress he’s not actually a woman. It’s not a question Jungwoo’s brave enough to ask, even though he knows Jaehyun loves him for who he is. 

Second, and much more importantly,  _ Jaehyun still doesn’t know he’s a witch _ . If (well, when) Jungwoo adopts a child, he wants to adopt a magical child, since they’re so often cast out of their family homes when their magic becomes apparent. It’s what had happened to him more than two centuries ago now, before Taeil found him and gave him a home and a family of his own. It’s a debt that Jungwoo knows he can never fully repay, but he would at least like to pay it forward by extending the same kindness to a child or two himself.

At this point, Jaehyun not knowing that Jungwoo is a witch is pretty much intentional, willful ignorance. Jungwoo has slipped up  _ so many times _ over the last two years, both accidentally and purposefully, but Jaehyun never seems to notice that anything’s amiss. The man literally once watched him have a conversation with a shifted werewolf, complete with Jungwoo leading him to his greenhouse to fetch the plant the wolf had come to see him for, and the only comment he’d made after the wolf had gone on its merry was was that he’d never known that wolves were that friendly. 

(They aren’t! Not even werewolves are friendly, they’re territorial at best and outright vicious at worst, but the wolf who had come to see him that night had been sent by Yuta and therefore had been warned to be on its best behavior if it wanted Jungwoo’s help!)

Jaehyun is, at least, more open to the idea that the supernatural exists than he was when they met, but in Jungwoo’s opinion that’s not saying much. Like yes, fine, Jaehyun believes in ghosts now. It’s a start, but a man who grew up in church—in the Catholic church, to be specific—coming around to the existence of spirits after twenty-five years of living isn’t some great victory. Not when Jungwoo genuinely believes that one of Jaehyun’s friends suspects that something isn’t quite right, although he doesn’t think that Johnny has put all of the pieces together. He may one day, if Taeil and Donghyuck decide they want to keep him around permanently instead of just toying with him, but for now at least Jungwoo doesn’t have to worry about Johnny outing him to Jaehyun before he’s ready.

Because Jungwoo is, at least, going to tell Jaehyun  _ someday _ . He kind of has to, since there will come a day where Jaehyun looks in the mirror and realizes that neither he or Jungwoo have aged a day since their wedding, courtesy of the bond they’d entered into on their wedding night. He’d just hoped he’d have a little more time before Jaehyun started pushing for them to expand their family beyond the two of them and the cat they’d adopted last fall, but apparently this is one area where the fates aren’t on Jungwoo’s side right now.

“I haven’t forgotten,” Jungwoo says eventually, trying to keep his voice light. “Just...you know that the adoption process takes a while? Right?”

Jaehyun nods excitedly. “It does, yeah. Which is why I was thinking we could use a surrogate instead.”

“A surrogate,” Jungwoo echoes dully.

“Yes!” Jaehyun replies, taking Jungwoo’s lack of enthusiasm as confusion. “I’ve done a lot of research on it. It’s a little more expensive than adoption is, but we could definitely afford it. There are a lot less hoops to jump through too.”

Jungwoo wiggles out from underneath Jaehyun’s much broader body so he can sit up against the headboard. “I really was looking forward to adopting one day and giving a child who’s already here on Earth a better life than they would have without us,” he says honestly. It’s the whole truth, even if there’s no way that Jaehyun knows exactly what Jungwoo means by it.

“I mean, I’m not saying we can’t adopt one day. But I think surrogacy is the way for us to go right now, since adoption can take years and it’s not like we’re getting any younger,” Jaehyun replies, turning onto his side. The movement causes their sheets to pool around his waist, and normally the sight of Jaehyun’s abs on display is enough for Jungwoo to forget about whatever else is on his mind. Jaehyun knows it, too, and Jungwoo finds himself getting irritated at just the thought that Jaehyun might be trying to seduce him to get his way.

“I have to go. I’m going to be late to work,” Jungwoo says, standing up abruptly.

Jaehyun frowns. “It’s Thursday. You don’t work on Thursdays.”

“I told Taeil I’d come in today. He needs some extra help running the store while he’s training Yangyang,” he lies smoothly. While it’s true that one of the two newest members of their coven just started working at the store, Taeil doesn’t need extra help when he’s showing someone the ropes and Yangyang hadn’t needed much training anyway. “Besides, don’t you normally get more work done here at home on the days I’m gone?”

It’s a rhetorical question. Jaehyun’s told him before that his boss often complains that his productivity is way down on Thursdays ever since he started working from home two days a week, but he gets so much done on Fridays that his boss can’t actually do anything about it. It’s no coincidence, either; Jungwoo’s home most Thursdays, but works at the coven shop on Fridays from open to close. 

“I actually finished most of my work for the week yesterday so that we could spend today together,” Jaehyun answers. “I feel like we haven’t spent much time together lately.”

Jungwoo’s glad that his back is turned to Jaehyun, so that his husband can’t see how he winces. It’s true, but he was hoping that Jaehyun hadn’t realized it yet. Jaehyun constantly talking about starting a family is a part of the reason why, but it’s mostly because there’s a major issue brewing within the coven right now; Jaemin still hasn’t learned that there are some people he shouldn’t fuck with, both literally and figuratively, and now the head of one of the most powerful clans in the entire fucking  _ country  _ is swearing revenge on them. Taeil seems to think that only he and Donghyuck might be targeted (besides Jaemin, of course), but Yuta thinks that he and Jungwoo are also potential targets because of how long the two of them have been a part of Taeil’s clan. 

Privately, Jungwoo agrees with Yuta, but he hasn’t told anyone that because he’s afraid of stressing Taeil out even more. Instead, he’s been trying to help deal with this situation as much as possible. No one is making it easy, though. This whole thing would be shitty enough on its own, but the fact that it’s happening just a few months after they added two new members to the clan is just making an already bad situation even worse.

“I know, and I’m sorry,” Jungwoo says quietly, turning back around so he can kneel on the edge of the bed and kiss Jaehyun softly. “I’m all yours this weekend though, okay? I promise.”

“I’m going to hold you to that,” Jaehyun yawns, his eyes slipping closed. 

“Hopefully you’ll be holding me to more than just some words,” Jungwoo says, raising an eyebrow.

Jaehyun’s eyes fly open. “If you keep talking like that, you won’t be going anywhere today either,” he warns, reaching for Jungwoo’s wrist. It’s a half-hearted attempt though and Jungwoo’s able to avoid him easily.

“Later,” he promises. “Get some sleep, okay?”

“I slept a lot last night,” Jaehyun protests, even as he yawns again.

“Sure, but if you’re still this tired you need to sleep more,” Jungwoo reminds him. It’s a conversation they have at least once a month, and even though he’s sure Jaehyun’s sick of it by now he’s never told him to stop saying it, so Jungwoo’s going to keep on doing it until the day that Jaehyun stops working himself to the point of exhaustion.

“I guess so,” Jaehyun says, pulling the blanket back up towards his chin. “Have a good day, babe. I love you,” he adds sleepily, and Jungwoo’s heart swells.

“I love you too,” he replies.

Yes, things aren’t easy right now in both Jungwoo’s marriage and Jungwoo’s coven, but he has no doubt that everything will work out for the best sooner rather than later. And maybe, just maybe, once the mess with the coven is sorted out Jungwoo will find a way to tell Jaehyun that he’s a witch.

* * *

Hotel rooms, Jaehyun thinks, might just be the loneliest places on earth. Maybe not if you’re with someone you love or a friend, but when you’re alone in a hotel? Yeah. Loneliest places on earth.

He’s in Nashville on a business trip, has been for the better part of a week now. Jungwoo had been acting kind of...shifty, for lack of a better word, when Jaehyun had told him where his company was holding their annual conference, to the point where Jaehyun half expected Jungwoo to either tell him that he couldn’t go at all or ask if he could go to Nashville with him.

In the end, neither of those things had happened. Jungwoo had driven him to the airport and given him a long, long look before telling Jaehyun to be careful along with his normal “have a safe trip, let me know when you land, I love you” farewell. In hindsight though, Jaehyun wishes he’d asked Jungwoo to come along, because he’s had so much more downtime on this business trip than he’s ever had before. If Jungwoo was here, he could be spending said downtime either exploring the city with his husband or by having a ton of vacation sex, both options infinitely better than staring at the walls of his hotel room has been. 

Bringing Jungwoo along would have also given them the opportunity to just be together, as well. Although Jungwoo hasn’t been quite as distant over the past few weeks as he was before Jaehyun flat out told him that he’d noticed they hadn’t been spending as much time together as usual, there’s still a noticeable chasm that Jungwoo has mostly chalked up to issues at work and Jaemin going through a bad breakup and needing the support of his friends. He never gives Jaehyun any specific details though, and it’s frustrating as  _ hell _ .

If Jaehyun’s being completely honest with himself, it wouldn’t be as bad if Johnny hasn’t also acting distant or weird in turn for literal fucking months now, ever since he started dating two of Jungwoo’s friends. That development had been hard for Jaehyun to wrap his head around, since according to Jungwoo Taeil and Donghyuck have been married “forever” (despite the fact that Donghyuck is twenty-two? Jaehyun doesn’t know what the story is there, and he likes the two of them enough that he’s afraid to ask), up until Jungwoo had had Yuta come over for dinner to gently explain the concept of polyamory to him. After that conversation Jaehyun had decided that if Johnny was happy, he was happy.

But here’s the thing: Jaehyun doesn’t see Johnny often enough to tell if he’s actually happy or not. They used to see each other at least once a week, since their offices are close to one another in the city and Johnny was the least weird about Jaehyun’s friends about coming out to the house to visit him (Mark’s been over once in the two-plus years since the wedding; it’s frustrating, but Jaehyun’s about given up on trying to persuade him to come over at this point). Now, though? They maybe see each other once a month, if that. Jungwoo sees Johnny more often than Jaehyun does now, just by working at the same place as Taeil and Donghyuck do, and it’s weird as hell. He’s not used to having to rely on someone else for updates on how Johnny’s doing, and it’s especially weird that the person giving said updates is Jaehyun’s husband.

And whenever they  _ do  _ see each other now, Johnny doesn’t really act like himself. He’s fine whenever they talk about work or their families or random shit, but whenever Jaehyun brings up Johnny’s relationship, Johnny kind of just...goes blank. If Jaehyun asks Johnny something as simple as how Taeil and/or Donghyuck are doing, his face goes expressionless and his eyes glaze over, like he’s been watching a boring movie or TV show for hours on end, before giving the vaguest answers ever. Even more strange is that Johnny snaps right out of it whenever Jaehyun changes the subject. Jungwoo claims that Johnny acts normal whenever he sees him around, though, and it sort of makes Jaehyun wonder if he’s imagining things or if Jungwoo is lying to him to protect  _ his _ friends, even though Johnny has been Jaehyun’s friend for longer than Jungwoo has even known Donghyuck or Taeil.

Honestly? The whole situation is weird enough that Jaehyun thinks that Johnny wasn’t too far off the mark two years ago when he’d suggested that love spells are a real thing, because that’s literally the only thing that Jaehyun can think of that might explain Johnny’s weird ass behavior lately besides, god, like Johnny being abducted by aliens and replaced with a cloned version of himself or something else equally outlandish. It just doesn’t make sense.

Jungwoo’s always trying to tell him that he should open his mind to the possibility that humans aren’t the only sentient creatures on the planet; maybe it’s time Jaehyun starts listening to him.

A sudden knock on the door of his hotel room pulls Jaehyun out of his reverie. “Yo, Jung! Open up!” one of his co-workers shouts, much too loudly for a public space. 

Jaehyun hurries to open the door before his co-worker can call for him again. “What?” he says, a little snappish.

“A few of us are going down to the bar in the lobby. I thought I’d see if you wanted to come with us instead of moping in your room all night again tonight,” his co-worker shrugs. “No skin off my back if you say no, but I figured I’d ask anyway.”

“You know what? I might as well,” Jaehyun decides. “Give me a few minutes to change and call my husband, and I’ll meet you all down there.”

Surprise flickers across his co-workers face. “Alright. I’ll let the others know to expect you soon.”

Jungwoo picks up on the first ring when Jaehyun calls him, which is always nice. “Hey, babe,” he says happily.

“Hi baby,” Jaehyun smiles. “What’re you doing?”

“I just finished loading the dishwasher, and I was planning on changing and heading out to my greenhouse for a while before I went to bed, but if you have a better idea I’m all ears,” Jungwoo says suggestively.

Jaehyun groans. “I should have called you five minutes ago. I agreed to go hang out with my co-workers in the bar downstairs so I can’t,” he laments. “So I wanted to call and say goodnight to you before I left, because with the time difference you’ll probably be asleep before I get back to my room and I’d hate for you to fall asleep tonight without me telling you that I love you first.”

“Aww,” Jungwoo coos. “You big softie. I love you. And Luna does too.”

“How’s she doing? I miss her more than I thought I would,” Jaehyun admits. He’d never had a pet of his own before they adopted their cat a few months ago, and he’d been a little surprised to fall for her as much as he did. He gets why people say pets are part of their family or even their kids now.

“She’s good. She misses you too,” Jungwoo tells him. “She’s been following me around the house since you’re not here to spoil her, so I figure she’ll probably go with me into the greenhouse as well.”

“I wish I was there with the two of you instead of here,” Jaehyun says wistfully.

Jungwoo makes a soft noise. “I do too, but you’ll be home tomorrow. I’ll make your favorite dinner, too.”

“Am I having you for dinner tomorrow then?” Jaehyun teases.

“No, dessert,” Jungwoo taunts him right back. “Seriously though, go have fun with your co-workers. They’re probably thinking you’ve flaked out on them by now. Text me in the morning when you wake up, and tell Kelly that I said hi if she’s down there too, okay?”

“Okay. I love you,” Jaehyun says.

“I love you too. Now go,” Jungwoo says firmly, hanging up before Jaehyun can get another word in edgewise.

When Jaehyun arrives at the bar downstairs about ten minutes later, he realizes that Jungwoo’s prediction was right— his co-workers  _ did  _ think he’d flaked on them, judging by how they’re all halfway to wasted already despite it being half an hour at most since he’d been invited to join them.

“Jung,” his most annoying co-worker slurs, slapping Jaehyun on the back harshly. “I thought you were gonna pussy out on us because your ol’ ball and chain said no.”

Jaehyun grits his teeth. “I said I would meet you guys down here, and I’m here. I need a fucking drink though,” he says shortly, turning on his heel to head over to the bar. He’s going to need at least three shots immediately if he wants to catch up to everyone else.

“Well, hey sugar,” the bartender purrs at him when he sits down, leaning over with her elbows propped up on the bartop. “You look stressed.”

“My co-workers are idiots,” Jaehyun mutters. “Can you give me like...four tequila shots please?”

“Are those all for you?” she asks. When Jaehyun nods, she tuts and shakes her head in a way that reminds him of Jungwoo. Her clothes kind of remind him of Jungwoo, too; Jaehyun honestly thinks Jungwoo has the exact same skirt she’s wearing in his closet back in Savannah. It’s uncanny. “How ‘bout I give you one shot, then I’ll make you a drink I know you’ll like and you can sit here and tell me why a man as handsome as you is letting fools like that stress you out like they are.”

Jaehyun nods, feeling powerless to say no. “Okay. Will you tell me your name first, though?”

The bartender straightens up and smiles at him. “My name is Rosé, honey. Let me get you that shot.”

Maybe it’s because it’s a Wednesday, or maybe it’s because it’s a bar in a hotel in a city with an extremely vibrant nightlife, but the bar stays empty most of the night. Even Jaehyun’s co-workers eventually abandon the hotel for a busier one down the street, but Jaehyun stays right where he is. The bar being empty means that Rosé can talk to him almost the entire time he’s sitting there, and it’s been a while since Jaehyun’s had someone devote this much of their attention towards him. He feels almost intoxicated, not from the alcohol (he’s still nursing the first drink Rosé had made him after his initial shot) but rather from having someone as pretty as Rosé hanging off of his every word.

“Listen,”Rosé says around eleven, “the closing bartender is about to come in and take over for me, and I’ve gotten all worked up listening to you all night,” she continues in a tone that leaves no question as to what she means by ‘worked up’ as she lays both of her hands on top of his where they’re resting on the shiny wood of the bartop. “Why don’t you take me back up to your room upstairs? You’re leaving tomorrow, and your co-workers are long gone. No one else will ever know but me and you.”

Jaehyun should say no. Jaehyun  _ knows _ he should say no. The love of his love is waiting for him at home, but home is five hundred miles away and he’s in a city where no one knows him.  Rosé’s right when she says that no one will ever find out.

“Fuck it. Okay,” he says.

“Figured,”  Rosé mutters. “Jaehyun, I need you to look me directly in the eye—wait, what?”

“I said yes, but if I think about it too much I’m going to change my mind,” Jaehyun tells her.

“Then let’s go,”  Rosé says, hopping over the bartop in one smooth motion and wrapping one of her hands around his arm. Her fingernails are painted blood red where they dig into his skin just the tiniest bit, Jaehyun realizes. They hadn’t looked like they were painted at all before now, but the lights in bars can be weird sometimes, he tells himself.

Jaehyun takes a deep breath and stands up. “After you,” he says, letting her lead him out into the lobby and over to the elevator bay.

“Last chance to change your mind,”  Rosé warns him, finger hovering over the up button. “You sure?”

“I’m sure,” Jaehyun replies, confident. He’s got nothing to lose at this point, after all.

* * *

It’s strange how quickly you can adjust to having someone sleep next to you every night, Jungwoo muses. He’d spent the better part of two centuries without having someone next to him at night. Comparatively speaking, two years is nothing. And yet, Jungwoo finds himself unable to sleep easily without Jaehyun next to him at night now.

Tonight is a particularly bad night for some reason. Not only is Jungwoo feeling restless, but his magic is feeling restless too; like an itch underneath his skin he’ll never be able to scratch. Luna seems agitated as well. She’s not a familiar or anything like that, but she seems particularly sensitive to the ebbs and flows of Jungwoo’s magic. It’s interesting, but not something Jungwoo feels like dwelling on right now.

“Well, come on then,” he sighs to Luna, shoving the blankets off of himself with a huff. It’s been a while since his magic has acted up this badly, but he can’t imagine his tried and true trick of spending time outside under the moonlight won’t work to settle it down tonight the way it has every time before.

There’s no point in Jungwoo changing out of his night clothes since there’s not another house around for miles, but he does at least take the time to put on a pair of flip flops before he slips down the stairs and out the back door. 

The night is one of those hot, sticky summer nights without even the slightest breeze to be found that only comes around in the dead of summer like this. The stillness of a night like this unsettles some people, Jungwoo knows, but he loves it. He’d keep coming back to the south because of it even if their coven hadn’t planted their roots here so long ago. 

Jungwoo sits down on the steps of the back porch instead of wandering around his property like he’d originally intended to do. Something is telling him that he needs to stay close to the house, and he’d learned a long time ago that listening to his instincts when they start screaming at him like this is the way to go.

Luna jumps up onto his legs after a moment, curling up on his lap immediately and purring loudly. It’s so quiet out that her purrs almost echo, but Jungwoo welcomes it. It’s soothing, and between her warm weight on his legs and the moonlight shining down on him it doesn’t take long for him to settle down.

“You know, I might just sleep outside tonight,” Jungwoo murmurs to himself. He has a hammock stored in the basement, and he could use his magic to bring it out and string it up between a couple of trees without having to lift a finger for a spell that simple. Before he can do that though, Luna suddenly springs off of his lap onto the grass below them, growling as she bolts towards the small grove of trees behind the greenhouse.

“Luna, what the fuck?” Jungwoo says, pulling himself up to his feet to follow her. He doesn’t get very far before a surge of energy around him stops him dead in his tracks. Seconds later—or maybe minutes later, honestly, Jungwoo has a feeling that time isn’t moving like it should around him right now—a bright white light blinds him, followed by a sound that sounds like gunshots and an explosion rolled into one chaotic burst of noise. 

When Jungwoo’s sight finally returns, it’s to see the magnolia tree he’d tethered his magic to shortly after the house had first been built completely obliterated, with the debris of leaves and flowers and wood scattered around the entire visible area. Somehow, he’s unscathed despite the destruction around him, but his thanks to the moon goddess for protecting him are cut short by a burning pain that suddenly slices through his entire body, starting in his chest and spreading outwards. 

The pain is so strong that Jungwoo blacks out, and when he comes to Luna’s clawing the hell out of his chest as if she was trying to wake him up. “Luna, stop,” he croaks, struggling to sit up. “What the fuck just happened?” he asks out loud. He’s not physically injured, despite the pain that had hit him out of nowhere before. 

His magic, however, is going fucking crazy, out of control like it hasn’t been since he’d first met Taeil and Yuta and learned how to control his newly manifested powers. It’s almost like something is trying to change his magic from the inside—and Jungwoo comes to a sickening realization: the bond. 

It’s the bond. His and Jaehyun’s bond. It's broken.

Jungwoo screams.

* * *

Jaehyun doesn’t go on business trips often, but when he  _ does _ , he and Jungwoo have a routine: Jungwoo drives him to the airport, but Jaehyun takes a car service home and Jungwoo greets him at the door with a kiss (or something more, if Jaehyun’s particularly lucky that day).

Today, the routine is broken. Jungwoo’s not at the door when Jaehyun gets dropped off, and if it wasn’t for the fact that both cars are still in the driveway he’d think that Jungwoo wasn’t home with how dark the house is. It looks like only the kitchen light is on, which is strange; Jungwoo almost always keeps every light in the house on when he’s home. It’s a habit that Jaehyun had given up on trying to break him of a few months into their marriage, when Jungwoo had pointed out that paying the electricity bill would never be a problem for them no matter how high it was any given month.

Luna is nowhere to be seen when Jaehyun pushes the front door open, which is also strange. Usually she jumps up into the window next to the front door whenever she hears noise outside, as if she thinks she’s a guard cat or something, but not today. 

Jaehyun feels a little unsettled over two routines being broken for no discernable reason, although he knows why it’s getting to him so badly right now. 

He’s paranoid. 

Somehow, Jaehyun is convinced that he’s going to walk into the kitchen and Jungwoo will be able to take one look at him and know exactly what—well,  _ who _ —he’d done last night, and kick him out of the house immediately. Jungwoo isn’t the vengeful type, so he wouldn’t be out to ruin Jaehyun’s life as payback, but he wouldn’t have to. Losing Jungwoo would be enough to ruin Jaehyun’s life by itself.

If Jaehyun was braver, he would come clean. He would tell Jungwoo about what had happened last night, about how the pretty bartender had lavished him with attention and compliments all night long and asked to come back to his room and how he’d agreed in a moment of weakness, only to regret it even before the post-orgasm haze had worn off, then beg for Jungwoo’s forgiveness. 

But Jaehyun isn’t brave. Not when being brave would destroy the life he and Jungwoo have built together already and will continue to build together in the future. Jaehyun can admit to himself that he’s selfish enough that he’d rather keep this secret with him to the grave if it means he can continue to have everything he’s ever wanted.

He can do this. He has to.

Jaehyun leaves his luggage next to the front door and goes to find Jungwoo. He finds him sitting at the kitchen table with his head buried in his hands, and Jaehyun comes to a stop in the doorway, feeling awkward like he’s never felt near Jungwoo before.

“Babe? You okay?” Jaehyun asks hesitantly, noticing that Jungwoo isn’t wearing one of his usual outfits today. No, scratch that—Jungwoo is wearing  _ pants _ . Yoga pants, to be fair, but this honestly may be the first time Jaehyun has seen him wear pants inside the four walls of their house without him getting ready to go somewhere he feels like he can't wear one of his usual outfits.

Jungwoo’s head snaps up, and he visibly looks Jaehyun up and down before meeting his eyes. Jaehyun thinks he sees Jungwoo’s expression close off for a moment, but it’s gone so fast that he’s pretty sure he’s just being paranoid again.

“I’m fine!” Jungwoo says airily. “Just tired, you know? You know I don’t sleep well without you anymore, and then there was a nasty storm last night that made it even worse. Lightning hit one of the trees in the backyard so I worked on cleaning that up today.”

Jaehyun frowns. “It stormed last night? There wasn’t rain anywhere in the southeast when I checked the radar right before I fell asleep.”

“Well, it did,” Jungwoo says quickly, standing up, “and we’ve got a ruined tree to show for it. I didn’t have a chance to cook yet though, can we take a raincheck on that?”

“Of course,” Jaehyun assures him. “Actually, we can take a raincheck on both of our plans tonight, if that’s okay with you. I think I just want to hold you tonight. That’s it. I missed you,” he says honestly.

“That’s fine by me,” Jungwoo confirms, and when Jaehyun opens his arms Jungwoo goes to him immediately. Even though the angle’s a little weird since they’re the same height, Jaehyun presses his cheek against Jungwoo’s hair and breathes a sigh of relief. Now that he’s got Jungwoo in his arms again, where the both of them belong, he knows that everything will be okay.

* * *

“I’m sure you’re all wondering why I called you here today,” Jungwoo says dramatically, standing in the middle of Taeil and Donghyuck’s comically huge basement living room that doubles as the main meeting place for the coven whenever all eleven of them are assembled.

“We are, actually. Your text made it sound like someone died,” Jeno says worriedly.

“As if Jungwoo would text all of us for help getting rid of the body,” Renjun says dryly. “You know he’s more than capable of handling that on his own.”

“He’s also kind of dressed like someone died though,” Jeno argues, gesturing towards the black dress and knee-high boots Jungwoo’s wearing. “He’s even got his funeral gloves on!”

“No one’s dead, but I  _ am _ in mourning,” Jungwoo tells them, ignoring how Shotaro’s mouthing  _ funeral gloves _ in amazement. He’s only been a member of the coven for six weeks, so it’s not surprising he’s not quite used to Jungwoo—or any of them, really—yet.

Doyoung yawns exaggeratedly. “Get on with whatever it is already, then. None of us are getting any younger waiting on you.”

“Fine,” Jungwoo says, sitting down on the floor. If he sits on one of the couches, someone will inevitably try to touch him to comfort him, and that’s the last thing he wants right now. If one of the armchairs were available, he’d sit down in them, but unfortunately for him Yangyang and Yuta had claimed them before he’d arrived. Perks of actually living here, Jungwoo supposes. 

Taeil breathes in heavily through his nose. “Jungwoo, I swear to God, if I closed the store for no reason I am going to strangle you.”

“Jaehyun broke our bond,” Jungwoo cries out.

“Funny joke,” Donghyuck snorts. “What’s really going on?”

“I’m not joking! The motherfucker cheated on me while he was on his business trip and broke the bond,” Jungwoo tells them, voice shaking. “I was outside on Thursday night sitting with Luna on my back steps when I saw a bolt of lightning hit my magnolia tree. Then I felt a sensation like  _ I  _ had been the one struck by lightning, and I knew the bond was broken. I could feel it. And then when Jaehyun got home last night, I knew as soon as I looked at him what he had done.”

“Oh, fuck,” Taeil says. “Jungwoo, I’m so sorry.”

Jungwoo rubs his face tiredly. It’s probably going to smear his mascara, but he doesn’t really care at this point. “I kept trying to tell myself that something had corrupted the bond, or that the spell was done wrong or something, but no. It’s broken.”

“Technically, something  _ did  _ corrupt the spell. Him sticking his dick in someone did,” Jaemin points out.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it!” Jungwoo says irritatedly, throwing himself down onto the floor. Staring up at the ceiling is better than looking at the various expressions of sympathy and anger on the faces of his coven mates.

“How are you feeling right now?” Jeno asks gently.

Jungwoo closes his eyes. “I’m feeling so many things right now,” he starts. “I’m so angry. I’m betrayed. I’m hurt. I’m heartbroken. But more than anything else, I think I want him to suffer,” he concludes.

“Okay. Kill him,” Renjun suggests. “Painfully. I’m sure we can figure something out.”

“I can’t kill him! If he dies, I die too! That’s literally the whole point of the bond in the first place!” Jungwoo exclaims, sitting up to glare at Renjun.

Across the room, Yuta shifts uncomfortably. “That’s not exactly true,” he says slowly.

The entire room freezes almost simultaneously, with the exception of Taeil and Yuta himself.

“Not many people know about the curse that awakens when the bonds of marriage are broken, because it almost never happens. Usually, both parties know that a fate worse than death awaits them if they do,” Yuta begins, his voice free of judgment. “I know Jaehyun didn’t know, but I legitimately didn’t think it would be an issue. He’s crazy about you, Woo.”

“I thought he was, too,” Jungwoo sighs.

Yuta stays silent for a long moment. “Back in Japan, I entered into a marriage bond myself. About two hundred and seventy or so years ago now, back when I was young and stupid. She was a witch, too. Everything was fine for almost a hundred years. Right up until she met someone else she loved more than me. She asked me if we could dissolve the bond— that’s something you can do, by the way, but from what I’ve heard it’s extremely painful for everyone involved and so it's not really worth it unless both parties really, really want out. So I said no. I told her she could either honor the bond, or break it herself and face the consequences.

“She decided to break it herself,” Yuta laughs, bitterly. “I don’t know what she did, exactly. Our bond by then wasn’t nearly as strong as yours and Jaehyun’s was, Woo, which is another reason why this confuses me so much. I didn’t instantly know she had broken it, and I didn’t know what she did to break it when I saw her next. It took me almost a year to realize it, and that’s only because the curse had started to take effect.”

“What happened?” Shotaro asks, leaning so far forward that Jungwoo genuinely fears that he may topple right off the couch. Doyoung seems to agree, because he reaches out to grab the back of Shotaro’s shirt and hauls him back about a foot; it’s not out of the ordinary for him to be that engrossed when Yuta is speaking, but that doesn’t mean that Jungwoo wants to see the kid fall flat on his face and he's glad that Doyoung took action to keep that from happening.

“When people say that the curse is worse than death, it’s not an exaggeration. It starts slow, with workers you see at shops and restaurants you frequent. Then it moves onto acquaintances, your co-workers, your friends. Your family. Eventually, the curse makes it so that no one except for the person you were bonded to knows of your existence. Your own parents could walk past you on the street and not see you. Other supernaturals will even look past you as if you're not there. No one can see you. Except your bondmate.”

“Holy shit,” Yangyang breathes out, a sentiment that’s echoed around the room. “That’s evil. I’d lose my mind if I was basically invisible to the entire world.”

Yuta laughs again. It’s still not a nice sound. “That’s kind of the point,” he says. “It’s the bond’s way of forcing the person who broke it to go back to the person they betrayed. If you’re invisible to the rest of the world, you’re eventually going to seek out the one person who  _ can _ see you. And when that happens, the other person has two options. They can either forgive them and reinstate the bond, or…” he trails off.

“Or?” Jungwoo asks. Right now, the pain of the broken bond being so fresh combined with Jaehyun coming home yesterday and acting like nothing out of the ordinary had happened while he was away doesn’t have Jungwoo feeling very inclined to forgive his husband.

“Or they kill them to put them out of their misery and free themselves from the bond too,” Yuta shrugs. 

Jungwoo winces. “I don’t think I actually want to kill him, though,” he whines.

“Don’t want to give up that bomb ass dick, huh?” Jaemin nods sagely. “I get it.”

“Shut the fuck up, Jaemin,” Doyoung hisses, sending a pillow flying across the room to hit him in the face with a flick of his wrist. “Now is  _ not  _ the time.”

“I guess there’s the third option of keeping the person around and prolonging things just because you can, but I’ve never heard of anyone doing that. And believe me, I think every person who’s had their marriage bond broken in the last two hundred years has contacted me at some point,” Yuta muses. “Word gets around in the supernatural community, you know how it is.”

“Why didn’t we know about this, then?” Jeno asks, sounding a little hurt.

“Because none of you had a reason to know about it,” Taeil interrupts. “He told me about it shortly after we met, but before we ever formed the coven.”

Renjun narrows his eyes. “Is it because you killed her? I’ve literally  _ helped  _ you kill someone before. That’s not a big deal.”

“No, that’s not it,” Yuta replies. “I mean, I did kill her, but that’s not why I didn’t tell you guys. I know it’s some heavy shit, and I didn’t want to scare you out of forming marriage bonds yourselves. If I’d thought Jungwoo was making a mistake when he married Jaehyun, I would have told him though. And I always kind of figured that if Jaemin ever successfully entered into a bond, I’d have to tell you when he inevitably broke it.”

Someone gasps. Jungwoo thinks it’s Shotaro, and his guess is confirmed when the kid turns to Jaemin and says, “Aren’t you offended?”

Jaemin raises an eyebrow. “By what?”

“By Yuta thinking that you’d break a bond like that,” Shotaro answers, hushed.

“What? Oh, no. He’s probably right honestly, I get bored with people pretty easily,” Jaemin says bluntly. “I did try to get married once a few decades back, but the fates didn’t allow it. Guess they were looking out for me.”

Taeil makes an exasperated noise. “You weren’t the one the fates were looking out for Jaeminnie, and you know it.”

“Anyway,” Doyoung interrupts loudly, “if I’m understanding what Yuta’s saying right, the bond is going to make sure that Jaehyun suffers until Jungwoo decides that he’s suffered enough?”

“Pretty much, yep. But there’s also nothing stopping Jungwoo from making him suffer in other ways either if that’s what he wants to do,” Yuta says, giving Jungwoo a significant look. “Jaehyun’s fate quite literally rests in his hands now.”

Jungwoo hums, reflecting on Yuta’s words. It feels heavy to know that you’re the one who gets to decide someone else’s fate, but he also kind of thinks that’s what Jaehyun deserves. “I guess it does, huh?” he murmurs, mostly to himself.

And despite everything that’s happened in the last forty-eight hours or so, Jungwoo can’t help but smile. 

* * *

“It’s starting to work,” Jungwoo says suddenly, breaking the companionable silence that had fallen over the workroom hours ago.

Donghyuck hums, not looking up from the potion he’s carefully stirring. “Your potion? Doyoung will be glad to hear that, he’s been trying to tweak that one for ages now.”

Jungwoo shakes his head. “No. Well, I mean, yes, the potion  _ is  _ starting to work. But I meant the curse.”

Donghyuck’s head snaps up. “Already?” he questions. Next to him, Shotaro makes a curious noise.

“Yeah,” Jungwoo nods, feeling a sick sort of thrill run through his veins. “We went out for dinner last night, and the waitress didn’t see him until I told her he was there. If he had been alone, he would have remained invisible to the wait staff.”

“Are you sure that it wasn’t just a coincidence?”

“Nope. He told me that he was ignored at Starbucks the other day too, and had to place an order through the app to get his coffee,” Jungwoo tells him.

“Huh,” Donghyuck frowns. “Yuta told Taeil that when his wife broke their bond, it took ten years for the curse to fully set in for her. But it hasn’t even been two months since Jaehyun broke yours.”

“Jesus,” Jungwoo mutters. “Maybe it’s different because she was a witch and Jaehyun’s not?”

Shotaro’s eyes go wide. “I don’t think so,” he blurts out, immediately shrinking back into himself when both Jungwoo and Donghyuck turn to look at him.

“No, hey, it’s okay,” Donghyuck encourages him. “What do you think’s happening?”

“I’m probably just overthinking it,” Shotaro says hesitantly. “I really don’t know much about magic yet.”

“Honestly, you know as much about this whole curse as we do,” Jungwoo reminds him. “Well, as much as I do. Hyuck probably knows a little bit more because Taeil doesn’t know how to keep secrets from him, but yeah.”

Shotaro visibly straightens a little. “Well. Yuta said that when his bond broke, he didn’t know that it did, right? But Jungwoo, you knew the second yours broke. Because it was stronger than Yuta’s bond. So maybe that’s why your curse is developing so fast too, because the curse is stronger when the bond is stronger.”

Donghyuck squeals, wrapping Shotaro up in a hug that looks more like a chokehold than anything. "I bet that's it! Taeil wasn't kidding when he said you were a prodigy, huh?"

"Why are we yelling?" Jeno asks from the doorway, a frown marring his normally relaxed features. 

"Jaehyun's curse is already working, and Shotaro thinks that its because our bond was stronger in the first place," Jungwoo tells him.

Jeno's frown deepens, even as he moves closer to them. "That feels vindictive," he says.

"I mean, the curse as a whole is pretty vindictive," Donghyuck points out. "What did Yangyang call it? Evil?"

"Evil, yes," Shotaro confirms. He's given up on trying to wiggle out of Donghyuck’s grasp, which is probably the smart decision if he wants to remain unharmed. Donghyuck's stronger than he looks, and has literal centuries on Shotaro on top of that. 

"Still," Jeno says, bottom lip jutting out just a little. "Maybe it's not that at all! Maybe it's taking effect faster than we all thought it would because Jaehyun broke it unintentionally and feels really, really bad about it," he suggests. 

Jungwoo shakes his head. "No, I don't think that's it. Wouldn't it make sense for it to kick in quicker when the bond is broken intentionally instead of accidentally?"

"He's right, Jen," Donghyuck says, finally releasing Shotaro. “The curse is a punishment, so why would it go easy on people who knew that they were breaking it when it broke?”

“I don’t know,” Jeno sighs. “I guess I’m just trying to be optimistic because I want Jungwoo to forgive Jaehyun and just end this already. I know you have to miss him by now,” he tells Jungwoo earnestly.

“Why would I miss him?” Jungwoo asks.

“Because you love him,” Jeno answers, like it’s obvious.

Jungwoo tilts his head, confused. “Okay, But why would I miss him?” he repeats.

“Well, um. If you’re mad enough at him that you’re fine with him being cursed, I just assumed you’d be ignoring him at home too,” Jeno flounders. “Like how I ignore Jaemin whenever—you know,” he stops abruptly.

“Like how you ignore Jaemin when what?” Shotaro asks interestedly.

Donghyuck shakes his head. “That’s a story for another day,” he tells Shotaro gently.

“I’m not you, Jeno,” Jungwoo reminds him. “Why would I ignore Jaehyun? I don’t want him to know anything’s wrong yet. That would defeat the whole purpose of letting him stay cursed whenever I could end it whenever I wanted, no? Besides, he clearly feels so guilty that he’s been basically worshipping the ground I walk on ever since he fucked around on me. It’s great. He woke me up with a blowjob this morning and didn’t even ask for me to return the favor!”

“You’re still sleeping with him?” Jeno asks, horrified.

“Like I said, Jeno, I’m not you,” Jungwoo shrugs. “If anything, our sex life is better than ever.”

“That feels morally wrong, I’m not going to lie,” Jeno says.

“And cheating on me wasn’t morally wrong of him?” Jungwoo asks archly, raising an eyebrow.

Jeno looks down at the ground. “No, it was. It was. I just...you guys were so happy. But if it can’t work out for you guys, who can it work out for?” he says despondently.

“Uh. Me and Taeil?” Donghyuck asks. 

“You guys  _ are _ like an old married couple,” Shotaro chimes in.

Donghyuck smiles. “That’s because we are. We did our bond, what, a hundred and thirty years ago now?”

“Hundred and forty. Not long after we came over here and met Irene for the first time,” Jungwoo corrects him. 

“Wait, seriously?” Shotaro asks.

“Yeah, seriously,” Donghyuck answers him. “Pretty sure I loved him the first moment I saw him. That’s pretty common for us. It happened with Jungwoo, and with...with other people I know,” he trails off.

Jeno smiles sadly. “Yeah.”

Jungwoo has no doubt that Shotaro’s picking up on what’s remaining unsaid in the room, and he doesn’t want to upset Jeno anymore than he already has. “Everything will work out between me and Jaehyun the way they’re supposed to, Jen. Everyone will get what they deserve in the end, nothing more, nothing less. Okay?”

“Okay,” Jeno says, finally looking back up from the ground. Jungwoo’s not sure he’s being totally honest with Jeno right now, but a potential lie is better than Jeno walking around looking like someone kicked a kitten in front of him like he would have been otherwise.

“I do have good news though! I think Doyoung finally got the ingredients for that memory potion right,” Jungwoo tells him, desperate to change the subject. Jeno doesn’t really mess with the actual brewing of the potions much, but he  _ does  _ often help Doyoung when it comes to workshopping new spells and potions. Jungwoo’s hoping that will be enough to take Jeno’s mind off of the previous conversation, and luckily it works.

“Oh, really?” Jeno asks interestedly, moving over to the worktable to peer into the cauldrons. “Which one is the new potion? All three of these are the same color…”

* * *

The waiter’s eyes skip right over Jaehyun like he’s not sitting there,  _ again _ , and Jaehyun has to suppress a groan. 

For the last month or so, Jaehyun’s been basically invisible to people he’s never met before, and it doesn’t make any sense. He  _ knows _ what he looks like, and he knows his face isn’t a forgettable one. Okay, sure, he dyed his hair a few weeks ago, to this silvery blue color Jungwoo swore made him look even hotter than normal, but wouldn’t blue hair make him stand out even more? Instead of making him blend into the scenery or some shit?

“That was weird,” Johnny comments when the waiter leaves. He’d taken Jaehyun’s order as well, but only after Johnny had specifically mentioned that Jaehyun was sitting there.

“Yeah,” Jaehyun sighs. “It was. And it’s happened a lot lately, too. Like I blend in with the wallpaper everywhere or something.”

It wouldn’t be so bad, Jaehyun thinks, if it had only happened once or twice. But it happens on an almost daily basis now, since Jungwoo’s been in a mood lately where he thinks they should treat themselves a little and go out to dinner multiple times a week instead of having to cook after working all day, and he’s been choosing restaurants neither of them have ever been to before each time it’s his turn to pick. The whole thing just makes Jaehyun feel kind of unsettled, truth be told.

“I’ve always told you that your face isn’t all that special,” Johnny cracks, grinning widely. Jaehyun laughs at the joke, but it’s forced. Johnny doesn’t seem to notice though, luckily.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Jaehyun says sarcastically.

“God, I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever,” Johnny continues, ignoring Jaehyun’s sarcastic comment.

“Probably because it has been forever,” Jaehyun bites out before he can stop himself. The whole thing with the waiter earlier put him on edge, what can he say?

Johnny’s face falls. “Yeah. I know, and I’m sorry. Things have just been kind of hectic for me. I ran into Jungwoo last week and he gave me hell about it. Told me I needed to call you.”

“Where did you see him? Taeil’s store?” Jaehyun asks, watching as Johnny’s face predictably goes blank at the mention of Taeil.

“Around. I saw him around,” Johnny answers vaguely.

“Well, I’m glad Jungwoo told you to call me,” Jaehyun says. 

Johnny’s blank look disappears like it had never been there at all at the subject change. “Me too. I miss you, you know? How have you been? How are things at home?”

“Same old, same old. Married life, you know?” Jaehyun says lightly. 

“I was a little worried, because when I saw Jungwoo he was dressed like he was going to a funeral or something when you compare it to what he normally wears,” Johnny admits.

Jaehyun grits his teeth. The Monday after he’d gotten back from Nashville, he’d come home from work to find a ton of boxes stacked on top of one another in the hallway leading to their bedroom and Jungwoo surrounded by clothes when he’d dared to venture into the bedroom itself. Jungwoo had said something about feeling the need to refresh his wardrobe when Jaehyun had asked him about it, and ever since then he’s been dressing in a way that reminds Jaehyun of the goth girls he’d gone to high school with that used to say they were witches or sorceresses or whatever.

(It’s kind of hot, to see Jungwoo in tighter clothes and chokers, but Jaehyun also misses the bright colors Jungwoo used to wear. Not that he’d ever admit it—he’s still afraid of fucking up and revealing his secret, and starting a fight would increase his odds of just blurting it out. No, thank you.)

“He said it was time to change his style up a little. Apparently the boho chic look is out now,” Jaehyun tells Johnny.

“Sounds like a direct quote,” Johnny laughs.

“It is,” Jaehyun confirms.

Johnny leans back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head. “He looked good though, I can’t lie. I’m not out to steal your husband though, don’t worry!”

“I should hope not, considering you’ve got two boyfriends of your own,” Jaehyun retorts, scowling when Johnny’s face goes blank  _ again _ . “But I know you’d never do that to me, don’t worry,” he adds.

“Never,” Johnny says, his face smoothing back out. “Oh hey, look, our food’s already on it’s way!”

As weird as lunch with Johnny ends up being, what with yet another stranger literally not seeing Jaehyun again and Johnny’s continued strange behavior, it’s not even the oddest thing Jaehyun sees that day.

No, that particular title would have to go to the scene he walks in on when he gets home: Jungwoo, wearing nothing but a short, blood red robe, sitting at their kitchen table polishing a dagger with several more laid out in front of him.

Jaehyun didn’t even know they  _ had _ any daggers, let alone what appears to be a solid half dozen, each more elaborate than the last. The one in Jungwoo’s hand looks like it’s got real rubies in the hilt.

“Uh...whatcha doing?” Jaehyun asks awkwardly.

Jungwoo looks up from the dagger in his hand and smiles brilliantly. “Jaehyun! I wasn’t expecting you back so early,” he says.

“This is the same time I get home every night,” Jaehyun reminds him.

“Guess I just lost track of time,” Jungwoo says airily. “Oh well. I found these in the attic earlier and thought they could use some sharpening and some shining. I’m almost done though! If you want, I’ll run upstairs and get dressed after I finish so we can go get dinner. It’s my turn to choose, right?”

It is, unfortunately, and Jaehyun doesn’t want to go through being invisible twice in one day. It’s too depressing. “Actually, I was thinking I’d cook tonight instead, if you’re okay with it? We have a kitchen full of food, we might as well use it.”

“If you insist,” Jungwoo shrugs, turning his attention back to his dagger. “Tomorrow night, then! There’s a new German place that opened up down the street from the store. Yangyang says it’s good, and he grew up in Germany so that means it has to be, right? So I want to try it.”

“Of course. Whatever you want, babe,” Jaehyun agrees as he closes his eyes and prays for strength. Or for tomorrow to be the day that all the weird things happening around him lately stop happening, but he thinks the prayer for strength is the one most likely to be answered at this point.

Unfortunately.

* * *

Decades ago, back when the coven was much,  _ much _ smaller than it is now and Jungwoo’s house had been the coven house, he’d helped Taeil create wards around the property line. The wards were mostly Taeil’s doing, but he’d enlisted Jungwoo’s help because even back then they’d all known that while eventually Taeil and Donghyuck would move into a bigger house as the coven grew, this house would remain Jungwoo’s home for as long as he wanted it to be. Having Jungwoo help establish the original wards would mean they didn’t have to be redone when the ownership of the land passed to him, but it also meant that Taeil’s much more sophisticated spellwork would remain intact as long as Jungwoo or one of his descendants retained the property.

Taeil had set up the wards to trip only when a supernatural that wasn’t a part of their coven entered onto the land, something so complex that even Taeil had been nearly drained of both magic and energy once the deed was done (which was saying something, because Taeil is one of the most powerful witches on this side of the planet). The wards don’t trip very often now, and when they do, Jungwoo usually has a head’s up that a werewolf or a vampire is coming by to visit him anyway.

Tonight, though? Jungwoo has no idea who—or what—just crossed onto his land, and it has his senses on high alert.

“Did you hear something?” he asks Jaehyun, who’s sitting on the couch flipping through a folder he’d brought home with him from work. “Outside, I mean?”

“No,” Jaehyun says absently. “Did you?”

“I think so,” Jungwoo answers. “I’m going to go look.”

Jaehyun looks up from his folder. “Want me to go out there with you?”

“It’s okay,” Jungwoo assures him, breathing a sigh of relief when Jaehyun nods and goes back to reading. 

A car he doesn’t recognize is coming down their driveway when Jungwoo steps outside, which means two things: it’s likely another witch coming to see him, and they aren’t here by mistake. His suspicion is more than confirmed when the car comes to a stop and Park Chaeyoung steps out a moment later.

Jungwoo swears under his breath and turns back to the house, hurriedly casting a silencing spell so Jaehyun won’t hear anything. A time stop spell would be more secure, but those are a bitch to lift and Jungwoo has a feeling that he won’t have the patience to cast anything too complicated when Chaeyoung leaves. 

“Jungwoo,” Chaeyoung says. Jungwoo turns back to face her, taking three steps so that they’re only a few feet apart. 

“Chaeyoung,” he greets her. “What the fuck are you doing here?” 

“I heard you’ve got a broken bond on your hands,” she says, and she sounds gleeful. Jungwoo grits his teeth and reminds himself that it would be very, very bad to hex the intimidatingly powerful coven leader who’s already sworn revenge on Jungwoo’s coven.

“I’m sure everyone I’ve ever met has heard that by now. That doesn’t explain why you’re here instead of holed up in your lair plotting Jaemin’s death or something,” Jungwoo says, irritation bleeding into his voice.

“You know, I considered that. I came up with fifty different ways to kill him, truth be told,” Chaeyoung says casually. “But I realized that was too obvious. Taeil’s probably got him all but buried under protective amulets and spells right now. Haechan, too. Not that I would ever be stupid enough to fuck with Haechan unless I had a death wish myself, but I’m sure that didn’t stop Taeil from taking extra steps to protect him anyway.”

Jungwoo stays silent. Everything Chaeyoung’s just said is true, but he doesn’t want to admit it just in case she’s here fishing for information or as a distraction of sorts.

Chaeyoung rolls her eyes. “Yes, I know, you’re not doing to confirm or deny anything I just said,” she says impatiently. “But you don’t have to, because you and I both know what I just said is right. And obviously I wasn’t going to go after Taeil either, so that really narrowed my options. Most of your coven is pretty damn young, and I wasn’t going to involve kids in a personal matter.”

Jungwoo’s heart sinks. Yuta was right when he speculated that Chaeyoung would go after one of them, instead of Jaemin or Taeil or Donghyuck, on her quest for revenge. He supposes she could have set her sights on Doyoung as well, but he’s so reserved with anyone not in their coven that she wouldn’t have known how to break him. 

“What did you do?” he asks. 

“Who, me?” Chaeyoung bats her eyelashes.

“I assume that’s why you’re here giving me your villain monologue, instead of at Yuta’s,” he says flatly. 

Chaeyoung laughs. “You always were good at reading people, Jungwoo,” she says. “A word of advice: if you’re not going to rein in your coven members, you should at least tell them to keep their mouths shut when they’re out fucking everything that moves. You wouldn’t believe the things that Jaemin told Lisa before he decided he was done with her and threw her away like a used napkin.”

Jungwoo winces. Jaemin’s penchant to run his mouth has gotten them in trouble before, and it seems like history is repeating himself. “Just get on with it already, holy shit. Silencing spell or not, Jaehyun’s going to come out here soon to see what’s taking me so long.”

“Have you considered that maybe that’s what I want to happen? That maybe I want to see your lovely husband again?” Chaeyoung questions.

“Again?” Jungwoo echoes. “You’ve never met him.”

“Yes, I have,” Chaeyoung tells him, a slow smile curving across her lips. “About...oh, three months ago now? In Nashville? Does that sound familiar to you?”

Jungwoo takes a step back, mostly to put some distance between them so he doesn’t lash out. “You didn’t,” he snaps.

“Oh, I did,” Chaeyoung retorts. “Your poor husband was feeling so neglected between you blowing him off whenever he tried to talk to you about expanding your family and his friends ignoring him that it was almost too easy to win him over. I went in dressed like you and everything, but I feel very certain I would have been just as successful if I’d been wearing a trash bag.”

“Okay. Okay, fine. So you, what, talked to him and gained his trust enough that you were able to put him under a love spell for the night? Why the hell are you telling me that then? Because now I’m going to walk right back in my house, repair the bond, and—”

“You’re right,” Chaeyoung interrupts. “It doesn’t make sense for me to tell you that your husband only cheated on you because he wasn’t in his right mind when it happened, does it? But that’s not what happened. He fucked me because  _ he  _ wanted to. Plain and simple.”

Jungwoo gasps. “No,” he says. “You’re lying.”

“If I was lying, I wouldn’t be here. I’d be living my life letting you think that Jaehyun cheated on you with some random bitch,” Chaeyoung laughs. “But instead, he made my revenge a hundred times sweeter. I got to fuck your husband because he wanted to fuck me, and now I get to tell you that I fucked your husband and watch your heart break all over again. And if you still don’t believe me, ask him if he met someone named Rose in Nashville and watch him try to pretend he didn’t. That will convince you.”

“You’re a sadistic bitch,” Jungwoo chokes out. He refuses to give Chaeyoung the satisfaction of seeing him cry. “I think it’s time for you to leave now.”

“Thank you,” Chaeyoung preens. “But before I go, as far as I’m concerned we’re even. A heart for a heart, you know?” she laughs, and Jungwoo balls his hands into fists at his sides. “But do pass on to Jaemin that if I ever see him within a thousand yards of Lisa again that I’ll chop his dick off and feed it to him, alright?”

“Leave,” Jungwoo repeats. “Or I’ll make you leave. You know I can.”

“It was a pleasure to see you Jungwoo, like always,” Chaeyoung tells him, turning on her heel and walking back to her car with slow, deliberate steps. One last way to fuck with Jungwoo’s head, he knows, but it gets to him anyway.

The front door swings open almost the exact moment that Chaeyoung’s car disappears from view, and the timing feels too perfect to be a coincidence. “Is everything okay? You’ve been out here for fifteen minutes,” Jaehyun says.

“I’m fine. I was just thinking about maybe planting a garden here in the front yard too,” Jungwoo lies smoothly, turning to face his husband. “Maybe plant a rose bush or two right next to the porch steps?” he adds, and watches as Jaehyun flinches at the word  _ rose _ . 

Just like Chaeyoung had said he would.

* * *

Jaehyun’s a heavy sleeper naturally, so Jungwoo doesn’t have to slip something into his nightly chamomile tea to ensure that he stays asleep when Jungwoo slides out of bed just past midnight. 

The main road leading to downtown Savannah is empty this time of night, which means that Jungwoo arrives at the coven house in just over twenty minutes. If there’s one thing he’s grateful for in this whole mess of a situation, it’s that Taeil had forced Jaemin to move out of his apartment and back into the coven house until Chaeyoung made her move for his own safety. It means that Jungwoo doesn’t have to knock, let alone wait for someone to answer the door. It also means that no nosy neighbors will hear whatever ends up happening, which is just an added bonus.

Jeno and Yangyang are in the living room when Jungwoo waltzes in. “Hello,” he calls out to them. “You should be asleep. Both of you.”

“You should be asleep, too. And at your own house,” Yangyang points out.

“I can sleep when I’m dead. First, though, I have to kill someone, so if you’ll excuse me,” Jungwoo says dismissively, turning to go upstairs to where the bedrooms, save Taeil and Donghyuck’s master suite, are. Jungwoo’s not trying to be quiet to begin with, and both Yangyang and Jeno follow him upstairs, so he suspects that the entire house is awake by the time that Jungwoo comes to a stop outside of the guest room Jaemin’s living in right now.

“Wait, wh-what are you doing?” Jeno asks.

Jungwoo ignores him in favor of pushing the door open. Jaemin’s clearly just woken up, stumbling out of bed like he was about to try and see what all the ruckus was all about before his door opened.

“What the fuck? I locked my door!” Jaemin screeches.

“You think a lock can stop me in this house?” Jungwoo snorts. The coven house is so familiar with him and his magic that the only room he can’t enter whenever he wants is the master suite on the third floor (not that Jungwoo’s particularly bothered by that, anyway). 

“Yes? What’s the point of having locks otherwise if they don’t keep people out?” Jaemin flounders, taking a step backwards as Jungwoo advances on him. “I might have had company!”

Jungwoo feels his magic crackling under his skin. "This would go even worse for you if I had walked in on you fucking someone," he says, backing Jaemin up against the wall furthest from the door and caging him in with his body. "Do you have any idea what you did?"

Jaemin swallows audibly. "I've done a lot of shit throughout my lifetime. You're going to have to be more specific."

"What's going on?" Taeil demands from behind him. Jungwoo supposes that by now, every single person in the house right now is in Jaemin's room, and he wouldn't be surprised if Yuta and Doyoung somehow know that something is wrong at the coven house as well despite being miles away. 

"I had a visitor tonight," Jungwoo answers, not turning away from Jaemin, who's visibly cowering. Good.

"And you're mad at me because of it?" Jaemin asks, proving once again that he's not nearly as intelligent as he looks.

Jungwoo curls his hands into fists where they're resting against the wall next to Jaemin's head. "Mad doesn't even begin to cover it. How many times did we warn you not to fuck with Lisa? Answer me," he orders when Jaemin stays silent.

"A lot," Jaemin admits.

"And what did you do anyway?"

"Fucked with Lisa, and now her coven leader wants to kill me," Jaemin says quietly. 

Jungwoo shakes his head, laughing bitterly. "You're missing the part where she swore revenge on our entire coven, and not just you," he reminds Jaemin. "You put us all in danger because you can't keep your dick in your pants and because you don't know how to break off a relationship like a decent being—"

"There was no relationship to break off!" Jaemin protests. "And why are you choosing to yell at me about this at one AM? Couldn't it have waited until, I don't know, never? I've heard this a thousand times already, Jungwoo. Jesus."

"Like I said," Jungwoo says slowly, "I had a visitor tonight. Park Chaeyoung showed up on my doorstep to tell me that the reason why I'm dealing with a broken bond right now is because she seduced my husband to get back at us for what you did to  _ her  _ coven."

Someone behind them sucks in a sharp breath, and in front of him, Jaemin goes pale. "No."

"Yes," Jungwoo replies him. "I'd say that I hope you enjoy living with the knowledge that your actions destroyed my life, but since you're not going to be living much longer that won't be a cross for you to bear for eternity."

Jaemin's eyes dart around the room. "Taeil won't let you kill me," he says, but his voice is shaky. 

"Taeil's not going to stop me," Jungwoo says confidently. "He's one of the two people in this room who understands the amount of pain your actions have caused me," he continues, moving one of his hands off of the wall and placing it against Jaemin's throat instead. "Right?" Jungwoo asks, finally sparing a glance behind him.

Just as he'd suspected, the room is full. Donghyuck has a death grip on Taeil's wrist, and Yangyang and Shotaro look more confused than anything else, but Taeil's expression is stoic as he nods slightly. 

"You can't kill me!" Jaemin cries. 

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't."

"Because we're coven mates! We're family!" Jaemin tries.

Jungwoo shakes his head. "Family members kill each other all the time, Jaemin. Try again."

"Please don't do it," Jeno pleads, suddenly appearing at Jungwoo's side. "If not for him, for me. Please." He looks terrified and heartbroken all at once, and for the first time since Jungwoo had gone back inside his house after Chaeyoung's visit, his resolve to kill Jaemin wavers. 

"You might be better off if I did, honestly," he tells Jeno.

Jeno shakes his head immediately, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "I wouldn't be."

"He doesn't deserve your loyalty, or your heart," Jungwoo says bluntly. "Never has and never will."

Jeno laughs bitterly. "I know, but he has both of them anyway. Jungwoo, please," he implores. 

Scowling, Jungwoo turns back to face Jaemin. "You literally owe him your life right now. I hope you know that," he says, dropping his hand from Jaemin's throat. "But if I were you, I'd stay out of my sight for a long while. Just to be safe."

Jungwoo's unfortunately robbed of his ability to make a dramatic exit, complete with slamming doors, when Donghyuck latches onto him with his free hand as Jungwoo passes by him. "Woo," he says sadly, "come upstairs with us and tell us what happened please."

"Fine," Jungwoo acquiesces, suddenly feeling exhausted. He follows Donghyuck out of the room and up the stairs leading to the third floor, and doesn't fight it when Donghyuck drags him onto the giant bed in the center of his and Taeil's bedroom. 

"I thought she was going to come after me," Donghyuck admits quietly once he's manhandled Jungwoo to where he wants him. "I truly did."

"She said she doesn't have a death wish. She knows that Taeil is one of the few people who could kill her," Jungwoo says, dull. 

Taeil settles onto the mattress on Jungwoo's other side, reaching out to smooth down Jungwoo's hair. "I have half a mind to do so anyway. She crossed the line in a big way here. It's bad enough that she put Jaehyun under a love spell to break your bond, but then she came to rub it in your face? Really?"

Jungwoo sinks deeper into the mattress. "According to her, she didn't have to put Jaehyun under to get him to fuck her. And I believe her. He visibly reacted when I mentioned the name she said she gave him after she left. If she had put him under, he just would have gone blank until I changed the subject."

Donghyuck whistles lowly. "Jesus. I'm disgusted, but I'm also kind of impressed. Or, like, I would be if it had happened to anyone but you."

"She said it was a heart for a heart," Jungwoo sighs. "Can I stay here tonight? I don't think I could bring myself to get back into bed with Jaehyun tonight, and he'll ask too many questions if he wakes up to find me in one of the spare bedrooms."

"Of course," Taeil assures him. "And in a few days, once you've processed everything, we'll figure out where to go from here. But I'm going to put you to sleep tonight, okay? You need it."

"Okay," Jungwoo agrees, barely managing to get the word out before he slips into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness. 

Taeil always has worked fast.

* * *

Winter arrived fiercely this year, and for once, Jaehyun doesn't mind. The bitter temperatures match his mood lately, but also, the cold doesn't discriminate. Even if no one in this entire fucking city seems to notice him anymore, save his long-term co-workers, his closest friends, and his family, the cold still chills him to the bone like it does everyone else. 

At this point, he’s stopped trying to go anywhere unless Jungwoo’s with him, because somehow Jungwoo is able to get people to pay attention to him. It had caused a little tension at work when he’d suddenly stopped going out for lunch or for after work drinks with his co-workers every now and then, but he’d managed to smooth it over by telling them that he was trying to save some money since he and Jungwoo are looking to start a family soon. Of course, he usually orders something to be delivered to the office after everyone leaves, but that’s between him and the receptionist and she’s never been in the business of spilling secrets.

Speaking of that, though, the app says his food was delivered nearly ten minutes ago and she hasn’t called him to let him know it’s there. She’s probably slammed busy, Jaehyun reasons, and so he decides to go down there to grab it anyway before it gets too cold.

Before he can even leave his office, though, one of his co-workers appears in the doorway, Jaehyun’s food in hand. 

“Oh, thanks,” Jaehyun says, accepting the bag that Dejun passes to him silently. “Is Katie really busy or something? Usually she calls me right away whenever my deliveries arrive.”

Dejun gives him a strange look. “She didn’t know who you were, Jaehyun,” he says. “I told her I’d take care of it so she didn’t have to worry. It’s progressing really fast, huh?” he adds sadly.

Jaehyun frowns. “What’s progressing really fast?”

“Your curse,” Dejun says, like it’s obvious. 

“My what now?”

“Your curse,” Dejun repeats. “You know, because you married a witch from one of the most notorious covens in the entire country, established a soul bond, and then broke it somehow a few months ago?”

“I think I must be losing my mind. I’m pretty sure you just said that Jungwoo’s a witch and that he and I have a soul bond,” Jaehyun laughs, sitting down on the edge of his desk. “Either that, or you’re losing  _ your  _ mind.”

Dejun hums contemplatively. “Wait, I think only we call them soul bonds. Witches just call them bonds,” he muses.

“We?” Jaehyun asks, then shakes his head. “Wait, no. Why am I even considering this?”

Sighing, Dejun pushes Jaehyun’s office door closed. “Because deep down inside, you know it’s the only thing that makes sense. And I’m a werewolf,” he shrugs. “We don’t have the crazy strong powers that witches do, but we do have a little. Again, mostly for bonding,” he continues, pulling the collar of his shirt to the side so that Jaehyun can see the scars in the shape of a bite mark where his shoulder meets his neck.

“Prove it,” Jaehyun orders.

“That’s why I just showed you my soul mark,” Dejun says confusedly. "What else could a scar like this mean?"

Jaehyun scoffs. “For all I know, you’re into some kinky shit and you’re just here to fuck with me. If you’re actually a werewolf,  _ prove it _ .”

“Fine,” Dejun says eventually. “Fine. But turn around, because I guarantee that the transformation isn’t something you want to see.”

Jaehyun huffs, but he slides off the desk so he can turn and face the back wall. After a moment, he hears the unmistakable sound of a belt hitting the ground and yelps in alarm. “What are you doing?”

“I’m not going to destroy my work clothes at lunchtime!” Dejun retorts.

Right, because Dejun is still claiming that he’s about to turn into a wolf behind Jaehyun’s back. “Whatever,” Jaehyun says, rolling his eyes despite the fact that Dejun can’t see him.

Suddenly, Jaehyun hears a horrific snapping noise that ends almost as soon as it started, followed by a solid thump against the floor that shakes his desk. Despite Dejun’s warnings, he can’t  _ not _ turn around at this point— 

And where Dejun had been standing a minute ago, there’s now a large, solid black wolf. A wolf that Jaehyun  _ recognizes _ .

“I’ve seen you before,” Jaehyun says shakily, taking a step closer to him. “Once. You came to our house and Jungwoo gave you something out of his greenhouse. Right?”

Dejun can’t speak, but he presses his nose against Jaehyun’s hand, so Jaehyun takes that as a yes. 

“And I’m married to a witch. Because witches are real,” Jaehyun continues. Dejun presses his nose against Jaehyun’s hand a second time. Another yes. “And he fucking cursed me?”

At that, Dejun takes a step back and moves his head in a way that makes Jaehyun think he’s trying to shake his head  _ no _ .

“What do you mean no? You just told me I’m cursed because of something he did!”

Dejun huffs and nudges Jaehyun’s leg insistently. “Fine, I get the message,” Jaehyun says, turning back around to face the wall. Another horrific snapping sound later, he can hear Dejun breathing heavily.

“Technically, you cursed yourself,” Dejun says, audibly short of breath. Turning into a werewolf and back must be exhausting, though, so Jaehyun gets it. “You did something that effectively broke your wedding vows, so now you’re suffering the consequences. I couldn’t believe you were stupid enough to break a bond with a witch, but I guess it makes sense if you didn’t know.”

“What’s going to happen to me, Dejun?” Jaehyun asks.

Dejun’s silent for a long moment. “I don’t know,” he says, and Jaehyun knows he’s lying. “That’s something you need to talk to Jungwoo about.”

* * *

The front door flies open with a bang so violent that Jungwoo swears the house shakes down to its foundation. It might, actually; it can probably feel the anger radiating off of Jaehyun in waves as he storms up the stairs and into their bedroom. Jungwoo could feel it the second the front door opened, that’s for sure.

“Hi, baby,” Jungwoo says serenely, smoothing out the creases in the burgundy velvet of his new dress along his hips. “Do you like my new dress?”

Jaehyun’s eyes go wide with rage. “Are you fucking serious? I just found out you’ve been lying to me the entire time I’ve known you and all you can say is ‘ _ hi baby, do you like my new dress _ ’?” he says mockingly.

“People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones, Jaehyun,” Jungwoo warns him. 

“Were you ever going to tell me that you’re a goddamned witch?” Jaehyun demands.

“Oh, you finally realized?” Jungwoo coos, knowing that his flippant tone will piss Jaehyun off even more. “What brought on your grand epiphany, I wonder?”

Jaehyun’s face contorts with rage. “Someone told me all about you today, and the soul bond you roped me into against my will, and how you’ve cursed me for not living up to whatever fucking standard you want me to live up to,” he snarls. “So I repeat, were you ever going to fucking tell me?”

Ah, Jungwoo thinks. Jaehyun must have encountered a werewolf; no other beings use the term soul bond anymore. It's too archaic. “Honestly? I kinda think this one’s on you for being too fucking dense to pick up on all of the hints I’ve dropped over the years. You literally watched me talk to a fully shifted werewolf, and instead of asking questions you were just all,  _ I didn’t know wolves were so friendly _ ! Wolves don’t even live in this part of the goddamn country, Jaehyun!” Jungwoo says, voice increasing steadily in volume.

“Well, forgive me for thinking that since I don’t keep any secrets from my husband, that he wouldn’t keep any from me either,” Jaehyun sneers.

The audacity of Jaehyun to claim that he doesn’t have any secrets is enough that Jungwoo snaps. His magic feels as untethered as it had the night when the bond broke in the first place, and he swears he can hear thunder crackling in the distance. “You don’t have any secrets from me?” Jungwoo asks disbelievingly. “Really?”

“None,” Jaehyun says.

Jungwoo laughs. Jungwoo throws his head back and laughs so hysterically that by the time he settles, Jaehyun seems torn between remaining angry at him and being concerned for Jungwoo’s well-being.

“Considering that I know that you cheated on me, I guess that’s technically true,” Jungwoo snaps.

The blood drains out of Jaehyun’s face in the blink of an eye. “You know about that?” he gasps.

“Yes, I fucking know about it! I knew you broke the bond the second it happened, and when you came home the next day I knew as soon as I looked at you that you’d fucked someone else that wasn’t me,” Jungwoo says, his pent up anger and hurt finally spilling out. “Also, newsflash, asshole! I didn’t curse you. You cursed your own damn self when you broke the promises you made to me on our wedding day. As far as I’m concerned, you’re getting what you deserve.”

Jaehyun’s face goes from white to red with anger in a split second. “So maybe I did break our vows. I regretted it, I regretted it so much for so long, but I don’t regret it anymore. How do I know that I married you out of my own free will? For all I know you put a spell on me, or put something out of my drink, and my feelings for you were never real.”

The accusation slices through Jungwoo like a knife. “I would never do that to anyone, and I especially did not do it to you,” he says, trying to fight back the tears that are suddenly welling up in his eyes. “You fell in love with me out of your own free will. I did absolutely nothing to influence it. We literally could not have gotten married if I had spelled you. The cord would have exploded when it was tied. I’ve seen it happen before.”

“But love spells do exist?” Jaehyun asks shrewdly.

Jungwoo nods.

“And your friends are, what, your coven?” Jaehyun continues.

Jungwoo nods again.

“So if love spells exist, and your friends are witches too, does that mean Johnny’s under one? Is that why he acts like a zombie whenever I mention Taeil or Donghyuck to him?” Jaehyun demands.

There’s no good answer to that question, so Jungwoo stays silent. Both a confirmation or a denial would likely make Jaehyun go nuclear. 

Jaehyun presses his mouth into a fine line. “I really wish you’d have been honest with me before I ever married you,” he says, much too calm considering how angry he’s been ever since he came home. “Know why? Because if I had known you were a witch, I never would have married an—an—an  _ abomination _ like you! You shouldn’t even exist. Your entire being is a sin and a crime against nature.”

Thunder rumbles once again, sounding much closer than it had before, and this time Jungwoo knows it’s caused by his emotional turmoil. 

“Wow, you finally remembered you’re a good Catholic boy, huh?” Jungwoo says sarcastically. 

“I’m leaving. I’m leaving, and I’m getting a divorce,” Jaehyun proclaims, pointing a shaking finger in Jungwoo’s direction.

Jungwoo laughs again; not because he’s still feeling hysterical, but because he’s genuinely amused. “Know any lawyers? Good luck with that, then,” he says when Jaehyun shakes his head.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Jaehyun demands.

“Oh, Jaehyun,” Jungwoo sighs, “haven’t you noticed that you flat out don’t exist to most people anymore? You can’t hire a lawyer, they’ll never see you. And soon enough, no one on this earth except for me will know you were ever born. Not even your mother.”

Jaehyun shakes his head. “No. No. You’re lying.”

“Am I?”

“You are,” Jaehyun decides. “You don’t want me to leave and expose you, so you’re trying to scare me. But it’s not going to work. So like I said—I’m leaving, and I’m getting a divorce, and then you will never see me again. And that’s a fact.”

“You’ll be back,” Jungwoo tells him confidently. “It may not be for ten years, but you’ll be back. And I’ll be waiting. Maybe I’ll have decided what your fate is by then, maybe not,” he muses, calm beginning to settle over him. He’s been waiting for this particular moment ever since he found out what the curse entailed, even if he hadn’t expected the blowup that’s led up to it.

Jaehyun opens and closes his mouth a few times, reminding Jungwoo of a fish. “You’re insane,” he settles on. 

“If that makes you feel better about this, baby, then you can believe I am,” Jungwoo says, saccharine sweet. “Need some help packing your things?”

“You’re not going to try and convince me to stay?” Jaehyun asks indignantly.

“Like I said, you’ll come back soon enough,” Jungwoo reminds him. “What, did you expect me to beg you not to leave?”

Jaehyun’s silence speaks louder than any words ever could.

Jungwoo nods. “In your dreams, sweetheart,” he says, snapping his fingers three times in rapid succession. The suitcase Jaehyun uses when he travels appears at his feet, and Jungwoo doesn’t have to open it to know that it’s crammed full. “There you go. If you come by tomorrow night, the rest of your stuff will be on the back porch. Don’t try to come inside, either.”

“Is that a threat?” Jaehyun challenges.

“A threat?” Jungwoo repeats. “Oh, no. It’s not a threat, darling. It’s a  _ warning _ .”

* * *

The first person Jungwoo sees when he arrives at the coven house the next morning is Jaemin. Of course it’s Jaemin, Jungwoo thinks, even as he calls out to the younger witch to keep him from scuttling out of the room like he's done from every room that Jungwoo’s in for the last two months.

“I thought you didn’t want to see me,” Jaemin says hesitantly.

“Things change,” Jungwoo replies, weary. “Sit down.”

Jaemin gives him a wary look, but he sits down on the couch and doesn’t leave when Jungwoo sits down next to him either. “Jungwoo. Listen. I’m really glad that you’re not going to kill me—or if you are, this is a really nice trap you’re setting here—but if you’re about to dump some emotional baggage on someone I’m really not the person to listen to it. You know this!”

Some things change, but others don’t. Jaemin’s self-centeredness is probably one of the most unchangeable things on this planet, Jungwoo thinks. 

“Am I that obvious?” Jungwoo asks him.

“Your eyes are puffy like you’ve been crying recently,” Jaemin notes, shifting uncomfortably.

“Of course you’d recognize that,” Jungwoo mutters. “Okay, fine. Yes, I have been crying recently. And yes, I am eventually going to go find a better shoulder to cry on. But I do need to talk to you first. I wanted to say that I’m sorry.”

Jaemin blinks rapidly. “What?”

“I’m sorry, and I’m not going to repeat it again,” Jungwoo sighs. “Jaehyun found out I was a witch yesterday. Apparently he works with one of the wolves Yuta’s friendly with, and they spilled the beans about his curse and about me.”

“He didn’t take it well, huh,” Jaemin guesses.

Jungwoo laughs bitterly. “No. No, he did not. I know some of it was because he, you know, found out he was cursed and that I was a witch at the same time. But I don’t think it would have gone a whole lot better had he only found out that I was a witch, since he called me an abomination and a crime against nature among other things.”

“And now you feel guilty because you nearly killed me over your bond breaking, but Jaehyun might have broken it anyway once he found out that it existed,” Jaemin finishes for him.

“Yes. That,” Jungwoo confirms, reaching out to pat Jaemin on the head. “You know, you’re so good at reading people. I wish you didn’t use it for evil all the time.”

Jaemin tilts his head to rest against the back of the couch. “You gave me a wake up call,” he admits. “I’d never actually seen someone be hurt by my actions before. It made me feel like shit.”

Jungwoo narrows his eyes. “Your actions have been hurting Jeno for almost twenty-five years, Jaemin.”

“I know that now! But he never let me see how much I was hurting him, not even once,” Jaemin says. “You just said I’m good at reading people, but I never, ever knew how he felt about me until you tried to kill me.”

“Can we please stop saying that I tried to kill you?” Jungwoo groans.

“Well, you did. And I legitimately thought you were going to do it, too.”

Jungwoo rolls his eyes. “Whatever. Can you get to the point you’re trying to make already, please?”

“Yeah, okay,” Jaemin sighs. “Like I said, that night was a wake up call. I didn’t know that Jeno loved me. I’m not sure why one of the only truly good people I’ve ever known loves me, of all people. I don’t deserve it.”

“I’m not going to argue with you there,” Jungwoo snorts. He’d said just the same thing that night months ago, and he wonders if Jaemin realizes he’s parroting Jungwoo’s own words back to him.

“No one would, except Jeno I guess,” Jaemin agrees. “I don’t know if I can love him the way he deserves to be loved, or even the way that he loves me. But I’m going to try. I think he deserves that. We’re going out on a date this weekend,” he laughs disbelievingly. 

“Be honest with him,” Jungwoo advises.

“You’re not going to tell me not to hurt him?”

Jungwoo scoffs. “You? Not hurt him? Impossible. No offense. But as long as you’re honest, maybe things will work out. Jeno deserves to be happy.”

“He does,” Jaemin agrees. “But hey, Jungwoo?”

“Yes?” Jungwoo asks.

“I’ve had my fill of emotional vulnerability for like, the next year now. No offense,” he echoes sarcastically. “So how about I help you find Hyuck or Yuta so you can cry to them about Jaehyun? Maybe even Renjun? I know he's not your usual target, but he's great at listening to people and he'd probably be the best for helping you figure out a good revenge plan too. If that's what you wanted.”

“Yes,  _ please _ .”

* * *

The worst day of Jaehyun’s life was the day he found out that he was cursed and that Jungwoo was the one who had cursed him. Without a doubt. Nothing comes close.

But the second worst day of Jaehyun’s life was the day his own mother had looked at him without seeing him, a little over six months after he’d left home—left Jungwoo’s house. Actually, it was on what would have been their third anniversary. Jaehyun doesn’t know if it was an unfortunate coincidence or laser guided karma, but it had hurt just the same.

So Jaehyun had had to ask himself a question he’d never thought possible at that point: what is a man who is invisible to the world at large even supposed to  _ do _ ?

The answer to that question, Jaehyun had decided, was to travel.

It hadn’t taken Jaehyun long to realize that supernatural beings could still see him. Maybe he should have realized that when Dejun could still see him at work when the secretary who he’d known for much longer didn’t know who he was anymore, but Jaehyun’s pretty sure he can be forgiven for not thinking logically that day.

Anyway. Supernatural beings can still see him, and there’s a lot more of them than Jaehyun had ever realized. The witches were easy to pick out from the rest— they were the ones that wouldn’t look him in the eye after an initial glance. Jaehyun wasn’t sure if it was because they could tell that he was cursed, or if Jungwoo and his coven’s notoriety extended far past Georgia, but he also supposed it didn’t really matter.

Every werewolf Jaehyun encountered seemed to think he was a vampire, which was just as strange as the witches refusing to interact with him. They were also often outwardly hostile towards him, which meant that either Dejun was the exception from the norm or that Dejun eventually took pity on him when he told Jaehyun the truth. 

(He kind of hopes that Dejun's the exception to the norm; Jaehyun hates it when people feel pity for him. Even now. Maybe even especially now.)

Hunters were also a thing, which had been a shock to Jaehyun’s system. That there were people who wanted Jungwoo and his kind dead for the simple crime of existing was upsetting, but it also made him feel, well. Guilty as hell. Especially when a clan of hunters in Paris had tried to  _ recruit _ him, figuring that Jaehyun had a reason to want witches dead as much as they did.

Jaehyun had snuck onto a plane back to the States the very next day. If he’s being honest with himself, he should have gone straight home—well, straight back to Jungwoo’s house—and told Jungwoo that he forgave him for cursing him and to see if they could maybe, somehow, work things out.

But Jaehyun was too proud, and it wasn’t like  _ no one _ could see him; he’d learned that vampires were pretty fucking awesome to hang out with and even better in bed, if he didn’t mind letting them take a little of his blood before they left. 

The Jaehyun of a year ago would have minded a lot, if he’d been able to wrap his head around the fact that vampires existed at all. The Jaehyun of right now doesn’t mind, though. At first, it had been revenge of sorts—Jungwoo had said that he could feel it through their bond when Jaehyun had slept with that bartender back in Nashville, after all, and Jaehyun had been feeling vindictive enough to hope that Jungwoo could still feel it every time he took someone new to bed, or let someone new take him to bed.

At some point Jaehyun had stopped hoping that Jungwoo could feel whenever Jaehyun fucked someone else in favor of hoping that Jungwoo  _ couldn’t _ feel it. Again: that should have been a sign for Jaehyun to go back to Savannah, but he still hadn’t.

Jaehyun’s breaking point comes in California, of all places, a year and some change after he’d left Jungwoo. He hasn’t been here for long; maybe three days since he’d left San Francisco for the warmer temperatures and bright sunshine of Santa Monica? Four? Time passes weirdly now.

That’s not the point, though— the point is this: Jaehyun goes to check out the Santa Monica Pier, on the advice of the vampire who mans the check-in desk at the hotel he’s staying at, and once he’s there he sees her. The bartender from Nashville. 

Rosé.

But the kicker is that Rosé  _ sees him too _ . She’s standing with her arm wrapped around a smaller woman with short dark hair when she spots him, and maybe her wave could be directed at someone else, but when she calls his name all plausible deniability goes out the window.

“You see me?” he demands, freezing in place maybe ten feet away from her.

“Mmm, I can,”  Ros é says, giving him a blatant once over. “You look good. The nomadic life’s been good to you, huh?”

“Not really,” Jaehyun says, speaking before he registers the words. “I mean—whatever. How do you know about that?”

“People talk,” she shrugs. “Give Jungwoo my regards, will you?” she adds, turning away from him. It’s a clear dismissal, not that Jaehyun wanted to stick around and catch up with her or anything like that anyway. 

By the time Jaehyun gets back to the hotel, he’s made up his mind: he ignored the first two signs that it was time to go see Jungwoo. 

He’s not going to ignore the third.

* * *

“I’m probably going to need to take a day or two off soon,” Jungwoo tells Taeil.

“Of course,” Taeil agrees. “When?”

Jungwoo shrugs. “Don’t know. I’ll let you know as soon as I do, though.”

That makes Taeil frown. “Is everything okay?

“Yes. Don’t worry,” Jungwoo assures him. “Jaehyun’s on his way back, though.”

“Already?” Taeil questions, his eyebrows flying up to his hairline. “I thought it would take years.”

“So did I. But he’s already in Georgia. Or close to it,” Jungwoo says, tapping the pen he’s holding against his chin. “I swear I can feel him more now than I did before the bond broke. It’s strange.”

“Well, one day maybe you can write a treatise about broken bonds and how strange they are,” Taeil responds dryly. “I’m sure Yuta will be glad to hand over that mantle to you.”

“I’m sure he would,” Jungwoo says, equally dry.

“Do you know what you’re going to do when he shows up?” Taeil asks.

Jungwoo smiles, slow but sure. “I’ve had my mind made up since two days after he left me.”

* * *

The statuesque Victorian Jaehyun called home for two and a half years has never looked as imposing as it does when Jaehyun pulls his car into the driveway just before dawn, nine days after leaving California. Or maybe it’s the man standing at the top of the steps, a vision in black leather and lace. 

“Were you expecting someone?” Jaehyun asks him curiously, drawing to a stop at the foot of the porch stairs.

“Yes. You,” Jungwoo replies, voice devoid of emotion.

Jaehyun swallows. The man standing in front of him feels as foreign to him as someone he’s never met before. “How long have you lived here, anyway?” he blurts out.

“That’s what you’re starting with?” Jungwoo asks, arching an eyebrow.

That’s some emotion, even if it is derision. Jaehyun will take it. “Yes.”

“Taeil had the house built sometime in the 1870s. I’ve lived here alone since the market crash, when he and Donghyuck bought the house they live in now for pennies on the dollar. Less, maybe.”

“2008?” Jaehyun asks.

“1929,” Jungwoo answers. His face slips back into that expressionless mask, and it leaves Jaehyun feeling like he has to talk to fill the empty space between them before it swallows him whole.

“So, uh, I’ve done a lot of travelling. Over the last nine months or so,” Jaehyun begins. “I thought I’d be invisible to the entire world once my mom stopped being able to see me, but, um. That wasn’t the case. Surprisingly.”

Jungwoo doesn’t even blink. “It would have happened eventually. I figured that’s when you’d come back, when it got to where only I would know you existed. Guess I overestimated you.”

Something about Jungwoo’s phrasing makes Jaehyun feel like he’s about two inches tall, but he powers on anyway. “Um. Yeah. I met a lot of interesting people. Mostly vampires though. Witches wouldn’t look at me, and werewolves are assholes. They also thought I was a vampire for some reason.”

“Mmm. I did too, at first,” Jungwoo tells him. “Everything would have been so much simpler if you had been, honestly. But go on.”

Jaehyun gets the distinct feeling that Jungwoo is just fucking with him now. “I met hunters too! What would you have done if they’d showed up before I found out about you? It would have been hard to explain someone breaking in and trying to kill you,” he says, agitated.

“Hunters only come to this city if they want to die,” Jungwoo says, untying the belt holding the long lace robe he’s wearing together. The action confuses Jaehyun until the robe falls to the side, revealing the ornate ruby dagger he’d seen Jungwoo cleaning so long ago now strapped to his thigh. The way it gleams in the low morning light makes Jaehyun think it might have been sharpened rather recently, and he’d be lying if that thought didn’t make his heart skip a beat or two.

“Okay. Right. Well. After I met them I started...thinking about things. About us, I guess.”

“Is that when you stopped fucking someone new every night?” Jungwoo asks. “I was wondering what sort of epiphany you’d had.”

Jaehyun’s heart sinks. “So you could tell, then. I was hoping you couldn’t.”

“Don’t lie to me, Jaehyun,” Jungwoo snaps. “Maybe recently you were hoping I couldn’t tell, but that wasn’t always the case. You  _ wanted _ me to know you were getting your dick wet every night.”

“Okay, fine! Maybe I did!” Jaehyun yells. “But that was before. It’s different now.”

“Oh? How so?” Jungwoo asks, voice soft.

Too soft.

“That was before I realized that I’ve forgiven you for lying to me,” Jaehyun tells him earnestly.

Out of all the reactions he could have gotten, Jungwoo laughing might have been the last one that Jaehyun expected.

“It’s cute that you still think you’re the one in the position to be handing out forgiveness,” Jungwoo says patronizingly.

“W-what does that mean?”

“It means,” Jungwoo says, sliding the dagger he's wearing out of its holster, “that your fate is in my hands. There’s only two ways for your curse to end: either I forgive you or I kill you. That’s it.”

“I could leave again,” Jaehyun argues.

“You could,” Jungwoo nods, turning the dagger in his hands over idly. “But you’d just come back again, when even your vampire friends don’t know that you ever existed anymore. And don’t kid yourself, Jaehyun. The fact that you’re here now means you’re ready for this to end anyway.”

Apparently Jungwoo hasn’t forgotten how to read Jaehyun like a picture book, even if Jungwoo feels like a stranger standing in front of him still. That doesn’t mean Jaehyun will give Jungwoo the satisfaction of admitting he’s right, though.

“What are you going to do?” Jaehyun asks instead. Demands, really, even though his voice is shaking.

Jungwoo steps to the side, giving Jaehyun room to come up onto the porch. 

The front door swings open, unassisted.

“Why don’t you come inside and find out?”

**Author's Note:**

> This idea has lived rent-free in my head for a year now, and I'm so grateful to this fest for giving me a reason to write it finally! Thank you to the mod for running a great fest, and an especially huge thank you to my artist [Nymphea](https://twitter.com/nymphea_jgw) for being so supportive and encouraging every step of the way and for making some seriously _amazing_ art for this fic! Go check it out if you haven't already!
> 
> As always, I can be found on [twitter](https://twitter.com/zero__miles) or [cc](https://curiouscat.me/zero__miles)! Thank you for reading, please let me know what you thought!


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